Google Search Takes a Page from Tik-Tok to Win Over Diverted Genz

Way back in 2021 Cloudflare found that Tik-Tok replaced Google Search as a popular domain

A picture describes more than what a thousand words put together fail to explain. This saying is no more confined to artistic oeuvres. It is finding more resonance with the way people particularly the young generation engage with visual content is sending jitters to corporate honchos. In a recent announcement, the search engine major, Google announced to include more visual elements like photos and videos in Google search. The reason: GenZers are using these so-called cool apps to search for anything that is Googlable. Only in a recent tech conference, Google's Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said that nearly 40% of young Americans preferred Tik Tok and Instagram over Google Maps or Google search engine. And this is not a new trend because research by the US business Cloudflare, in 2021 found that Tik Tok replaced Google Search as the most popular domain of the year. To gain back the very valuable youngsters, in its 'Search On' event, Google announced a few changes to its map and search features. Only last week Google's video hosting platform Youtube announced that it would share advertising revenue with YouTube Shorts creators in a desperate attempt to woo TikTok and Instagram influencers.

Major features unveiled by Google include

• Vibe Check: To put itself ahead in the race of giving the taste of a place through video footage, Google announced a 'neighborhood vibe feature' to find out how the place feels like without having to be there. Apparently, the usage of the word 'vibe' to resonate with the young generation is worth taking note of. As per Google's blog, they combined AI with local knowledge from Google Maps data

• Immersive view:

Adding around 250 landmarks to its "immersive view feature", with their photorealistic aerial views, Google has taken all the right steps to gain back young backpackers whose main go-to source for location information remains Tik-Tok and Instagram apps. And adding to the visual feast, it also helps them keep abreast of weather conditions, traffic, and how busy the place will be. Can anyone ask for more?

• Improvised 'Live view'

While the older version helped a person keep track of the directions with arrows displayed on top of the screen, the improvised version of Live View will let users explore nearby places more intuitively. For eg., if you are going out to fetch groceries, and only after a while you realize you need to take your car for a wash. For such situations, holding up your phone would suffice to find the nearest place not in text-heavy format but in card style format overlaid with imagery. The visual search results in certain cases might result in YT, Instagram, and Tik Tok Videos as well.

• Search outside the box

To make visual search more meaningful in terms of making sense of the object in its entirety, Google rolled out the 'Search Outside the Box' feature.  Whenever a user types keywords, this feature gives related suggestions to help him explore outside the breadth of the subject to relate with other connected aspects making the search experience wholesome. For example, if you attempt to search for the nearest hospital, you may have search options related to organic food stores, or stores selling gym equipment below the search window

• 9 tools for easy shopping

Assisting in shopping is a perfect recipe to pull in youngsters and Google seems to be planning it well. Making the shopping experience more realistic and visual, it introduced 9 features that go beyond the regular recommendations. Expanding 'shoppable search experience' beyond the clothing line Google said other categories from electronics to beauty will get a 3D avatar. And wait, if you are a fashionista, Google's 'Shop by Look' feature is worth a wait.

• Finding the perfect dish

Foodies who do not have other options than fiddling with Tik Tok to find an influencer for a perfect place for a dish recommendation can look forward to this feature. Earlier, searching for a dish would result in a list of related restaurants, but with the new feature, the user would get the exact dish results saving him from going through endless menus all while getting a sense of how it feels like to be at the restaurant.

Whoa! The list of features is very impressive and exhaustive for a casual Google user but the question remains, in the struggle for dominance between Google and TikTok, can Google overcome the quick and easy access that TikTok provides and not to mention the overwhelming influence it has on the young minds, to the extent that it has become an extension of their personalities. With Tik Tok way ahead in providing a personalized experience with a customized website loaded with material a user looks for without even having to think about keywords leveraging AI-optimized search and immersive marketing, it remains to be seen how much Google can play the catch-up game.