OF course, I predict that even if a researcher did find a correlation between paid ads and prominence in other venues, Google would say the researcher had a “biased sample” of organic content (given the personalization of search). And it might well refuse to disclose, on trade secret grounds, the baseline of results that its algorithm personalizes. It may well refuse to even admit or deny whether there is any such thing as a baseline that is personalized! We are completely adrift in the absence institutions designed to guarantee “qualified transparency.”