TikTok Makes ‘Searching’ Easier For iPhone Users With A New Search Widget

There is a good piece of information for iPhone users that a new TikTok search widget has been launched. It is now available for iPhone users, giving everyone a shortcut to its search. This all-new widget will automatically bring you to TikTok’s search screen, instead of opening the app and then clicking the search button. It will save you probably 5 seconds max but suggests that the platform is doubling down on its status as a search engine. It would not be wrong to say that Gen Z nowadays uses TikTok to find recipes, travel recommendations, and workouts. So, it will be a handy feature for all of them.

TikTok Search Widget Quietly Unveiled

The video platform TikTok indicated its passion to be identified as a search engine with an ad that ran in the UK earlier this year. It featured the slogan, “Search it with TikTok.” Recently, the company made it true with its quiet rollout. It seems to be directly competing with Google’s own search widget.

The point worth mentioning here is that TikTok’s focus on search comes after Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president in charge of Google Search, shared a study. Now, you must be wondering what it was. The study was actually conducted by the company last summer. It was found that 40% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the US use TikTok or Instagram to search for lunch spots instead of Google Search.

It would not be wrong to say that TikTok is also a spot where people search for news. TikTok is the fasted growing news source among UK adults according to a survey. However, research conducted by News Guard late last year unveiled that TikTok’s search suggests misinformation almost 20% of the time. So, I think that TikTok needs to handle its unchecked misinformation if it wants to be taken seriously as a search engine.

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