Far better for a third-party to commission these studies and do them once, and see what the results are.
Another thing to keep in mind with this study is it tests users in an abstracted environment. E.g., things you might find useful when comparing two sets of ten results may not be the things you find useful when you're looking for a hotel in new york.
I don't want to see the main search results dedicated to showing an arbitrary selection of local new york hotels. I just want the links to sites like Expedia etc who will show me ALL the hotels.