We study how the mode of information acquisition shapes belief updating and retention in the context of macroeconomic expectations. We conduct a randomised online experiment to study how beliefs about the risk of a recession or future inflation respond when the same informative signal is acquired in different ways. Participants are assigned to receive information in a passive mode, or one of three active modes -- directed online search under low or high search frictions, and undirected online search. We elicit prior and incentivized posterior beliefs about recession risk and inflation and record detailed browsing behavior throughout the experiment. Comparisons across acquisition regimes provide causal evidence on how active retrieval and search frictions affect belief updating relative to the widely-used information provision paradigm, and identify the interaction between acquisition mode and search costs. The web trace data offers a descriptive benchmark for endogenous information acquisition and rich information on people's search pathways. A follow-up survey provides evidence of differences in the retention of acquired information across the different modes.