As TikTok enhances its search capabilities, the platform is now displaying reviews for certain locations directly within the comment section of videos. This new feature, seemingly a test, removes the necessity of performing a separate search or using Google when you encounter a location on TikTok and wish to gather more information.

TikTok users granted access to this novel feature will observe a distinct "Reviews" tab situated on the right upon accessing the video's comments.

For example, encountering a video of Central Park in New York City with a tagged location will enable you to access users' star ratings, written reviews, and any uploaded photographs for that place.

Additionally, selecting a reviewer's username in this section allows access to their TikTok profile, a distinctive capability not present in the preceding Google Maps integration, which was marked by a Google Maps icon.

While the new feature might prove advantageous for certain users, it could also be perceived by others as cluttering the interface during content consumption.

This initiative represents TikTok's latest endeavour to broaden its search capabilities and challenge Google's dominance.

In 2022, a Google executive posited that TikTok was encroaching upon its fundamental services, Search and Maps, especially among younger demographics, and today, TikTok has indeed contested Google's supremacy across multiple domains.

Beyond its prominence for place discovery among Gen Z, TikTok incorporated image search functionalities last year, enabling users to capture or upload a photograph to locate analogous items within TikTok Shop.

Commencing in September 2024, TikTok introduced "TikTok Search Ads Campaigns," a keyword-centric search functionality enabling advertisers to position their brand advertisements within the search results interface.

Whether TikTok intends to introduce its reviews tab more widely remains uncertain, as the company chose not to comment prior to publication; however, our tests at TechCrunch revealed that this feature was only visible on a subset of videos featuring a location tag.