Cooper Lewis ‘26, Sports Editor
Known for its dancing and do-it-yourself videos, TikTok has taken the world by storm and swept over the phones of Gen-Z. People are attached to the simplicity and entertainment on the app. Type in whatever you want, and watch as endless videos appear in the blink of an eye, easy to follow and understand. It is this simplicity that has formed a new question in today’s society: is TikTok becoming the new major search engine? Quite frankly, yes. Put in any question you may have, and chances are there is a TikTok video to be found.
Now, Google still ultimately remains the largest search engine, but the company itself has noticed TikTok edging into its territory. Prabhakar Raghaven, a Google senior vice president, said, “In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”
Searching on TikTok is usually a lot more interactive then searching on Google. Instead of reading through countless walls of text, users can find simple, easy to understand videos in a matter of seconds. Videos are often less than 60 seconds long, so users feel that they receive more relevant answers and information.
Despite this, there are a few downsides to TikTok becoming a new prominent search engine, however. For example, TikTok has a reputation of spreading misinformation relating to elections, the war in Ukraine, and even abortion. Newsgaurd, a technology and journalism tool that helps track information, searched Tiktok for major news information. The report states that TikTok, “repeatedly delivered containing false claims in the first 20 results, often within the first five.”
With the continual rise in popularity, it is very likely that TikTok will overtake Google as the world’s main search engine. Will Google survive through all of this? Or will it just be another thing that Gen-Z puts in the past?
Lyon Life 