1484227 - Change improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile pref to be default true

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect, P1)

Description

[Kate Hudson :k88hudson]

Analysis folks have requested that we change the value of the  improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile pref to be default true for the 62 release study if possible.

Comment 1

[Kate Hudson :k88hudson]

How would you feel about us doing an additional uplift of a line change to set this pref default ON?

Comment 2

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

From talking with Kate, sounds like Matt and the analysis team would like this pref (for the first of two experiments, the filtering one) to default to on. We can do that, but I tend to prefer to ship with default off. 

If we ran into any sort of unpredictable problem during startup that caused a crash, for example, we'd be in a difficult situation and might not be able to turn this off for users.  If we trust our pref flipping mechanism then why not ship default off and then set up the experiment by turning it on for whatever % of users?  

From further chatting with Matt and Kate it sounds like that sort of crash is unlikely and the cost of enrolling a large % of users is  high.  This pref was/is on by default in beta without any bad result. 

So, let's go ahead with this for 62 release.

Comment 3

[GitHub Bugzilla PR Linker]

Attachment: Link to GitHub pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/pull/4352

Comment 4

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream

https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/commit/cacc2485992147d5330b70760615544303366d76
Fix Bug 1484227 - set improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile to true

https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/commit/e5e63fce7b814591569a405513cc7643fa7e0385
Merge pull request #4352 from mozilla/bug1484227

Fix Bug 1484227 - set improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile to true

Comment 5

[Kate Hudson :k88hudson]

Attachment: Bug 1484227 - set improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile to true

MozReview-Commit-ID: 3xTWyJuwnfX

Comment 6

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Comment on attachment 9002031 [details]
Bug 1484227 - set improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile to true

Ed Lee :Mardak (PTO Aug 11-26) has approved the revision.

Comment 7

[Kate Hudson :k88hudson]

Ok, this should be good to go!

Comment 8

[Kate Hudson :k88hudson]

Comment on attachment 9002031 [details]
Bug 1484227 - set improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile to true

Approval Request Comment
[Feature/Bug causing the regression]: pref for default filtering search experiment should be default on
[User impact if declined]: shield roll-out is more expensive if this pref is default off
[Is this code covered by automated tests?]: yes
[Has the fix been verified in Nightly?]: no
[Needs manual test from QE? If yes, steps to reproduce]: no
[List of other uplifts needed for the feature/fix]: no
[Is the change risky?]: no
[Why is the change risky/not risky?]: just a 1-line pref change
[String changes made/needed]: none

Comment 9

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

OK to uplift for beta 19 as discussed on irc and email with Matt and Kate. This was on by default for beta with no known problems.

Comment 10

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b841b6fa93f1

Comment 11

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/27115a622296

Comment 12

[GitHub Bugzilla PR Linker]

Attachment: Link to GitHub pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/pull/4361

Comment 13

[Marius Coman [:mcoman], Ecosystem QA]

I have verified this on Windows 10 x64, Arch Linux and Mac 10.13.3 with the latest version of "Firefox Beta" (63.0b2 - Build ID 20180830123124) installed and I can confirm that the "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile" pref is displayed in the "about:config" page, with the "true" value by default. 

However, on Firefox Nightly, the "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.noDefaultSearchTile" pref was already displayed in the "about:config" page with the "true" value by default, on builds released before logging this report (eg. Build ID - 20180810220115). Considering this I will mark the 63 version as unaffected (please change the flag if my understanding wasn't correct).