TikTok is improving its search feature and is now showing reviews for certain places in the comments section of videos. This new feature, which seems to be a trial, saves you from searching again or opening Google when you see a place on TikTok and want to find out more.

If you can use this new feature on TikTok, you will see a new "Reviews" tab on the right when you click to see the video's comments.

For example, if you find a video of Central Park in New York City and the creator has added the location, you can see how users have rated the place, read their reviews, and look at any photos they have uploaded.

You can click on a reviewer's name to see their TikTok profile. This is different from an older Google Maps feature that used a Google Maps icon.

While some people may like the new feature, others might feel it makes the user experience too busy when they look at content.

This action is the latest way TikTok is trying to make its search better and compete with Google.

In 2022, a Google manager said that TikTok was taking business from its main services, Search and Maps, especially among young people. Today, TikTok has become a strong competitor to Google in several areas.

Besides being popular for searching places among young people (Gen Z), TikTok also added a feature last year where users can search using pictures. They can take or upload a photo to find similar things to buy in TikTok Shop.

From September 2024, TikTok also started letting advertisers target users on its search results page using "TikTok Search Ads Campaigns." This is a search tool based on keywords that shows ads for different brands in the search results.

It's not clear if TikTok will make this reviews feature available to more people. The company did not want to say anything before this article was published. However, when we tested it, we saw that only some videos with a location tag showed this feature.