# An engine not a camera: Measuring performative power of online search

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19073 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19073/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 29 May 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [The Lock-in Hypothesis: Stagnation by Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06166/) (2025)
- [Performative Validity of Recourse Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.15366/) (2025)
- [Safety vs. Performance: How Multi-Objective Learning Reduces Barriers to Market Entry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03734/) (2024)
- [Welfare as a Guiding Principle for Machine Learning -- From Compass, to Lens, to Roadmap](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11981/) (2025)
- [With a Little Help From My Friends: Collective Manipulation in Risk-Controlling Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28476/) (2026)
- [What's in a Query: Polarity-Aware Distribution-Based Fair Ranking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11429/) (2025)
- [PAC Learnability in the Presence of Performativity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.08335/) (2025)
- [Retraining Seeks Stable Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.15623/) (2026)
- [Stabilizing Performative Feedback Loops with Minimal Model Deployments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.14065/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The power of digital platforms is at the center of major ongoing policy and regulatory efforts. To advance existing debates, we designed and executed an experiment to measure the performative power of online search providers. Instantiated in our setting, performative power quantifies the ability of a search engine to steer web traffic by rearranging results. To operationalize this definition we developed a browser extension that performs unassuming randomized experiments in the background. These randomized experiments emulate updates to the search algorithm and identify the causal effect of different content arrangements on clicks. Analyzing tens of thousands of clicks, we discuss what our robust quantitative findings say about the power of online search engines, using the Google Shopping antitrust investigation as a case study. More broadly, we envision our work to serve as a blueprint for how the recent definition of performative power can help integrate quantitative insights from online experiments with future investigations into the economic power of digital platforms.