1691424 - Localized Amazon missmatch when different Regions/localizations are used

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Search, defect, P2)

Description

[Pablo]

When testing topsites configurations changing region on user.js and trying another localized builds we found some ambiguity on how it is handling the Region/Locale combination. For example we should get depending on the Region and Localization, if the Amazon topsite should show amazon.COM or amazon.DE , or amazon.FR.

Tested on
Windows10 64bit

Affects:
Firefox Nightly 87.0a1
Firefox Release 85
Firefox Beta 86.0b7

Steps to reproduce

1. Use a user.js with :
   Region: US
   Search log: true
   Remotesettings : ON

2. Launch "DE" localized firefox, with user.js listed above (region US)

3. Check topsites, (Notice that you get "amazon.DE" in the topsites.)

4. Launch "US" localized firefox, with user.js listed above (change region to DE)

5. Check topsites, (notice that you get "amazon.COM" in the topsites)

6. Launch "US" localized firefox, with user.js listed above (change region to FR)

7. check topsites, (notice that you get "amazon.FR" in the topsites)

Actual Result
on step#3, the localized build is DE with region user.js set for US, but i see amazon.de
On step#5, the localized build is US with region user.js set for DE, but i see amazon.COM
on step#7, the Localized build is US with region user.js set for FR, but i see amazon.FR

Expected result
Im not sure how firefox treats amazon for Locale/region.
Why would region DE shows me Amazon.COM and not amazon.DE, and when i put region FR it shows me amazon.FR

Notes
The problem is not specifically that de/us has amazon.de, but that there's ambiguity of handling the region and locale
The remotesettings and legacy behave the same, so it's not a regression

Comment 1

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

It appears that amazon.fr is available as an engine in en-US builds but amazon.de is not?

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Yes, the Amazon search engine deployments currently depend on both locale & region, and there's inconsistencies in them.

We're currently working to improve how these are managed.

Comment 3

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Let's use this bug as a place holder to detail how exactly the top-sites search shortcuts and search-config engines integrate.

For a given en-US/DE combo, comparing legacy vs Remote Settings topsites, we have a match, but when checking the remote settings top-sites config and search-config it gets a bit confusing:

Search-config:

SearchEngineSelector: fetchEngineConfiguration en-US:DE:nightly::false:firefox:88.0a1
SearchEngineSelector: fetchEngineConfiguration: [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail]

Topsites config:

url	"https://www.amazon.com/"
order	50
title	"Amazon"
exclude_regions	
...
"DE"
search_shortcut	true

url	"https://www.amazon.de/"
order	5
title	"Amazon"
include_regions	
"DE"
search_shortcut	true

Ignoring search-config and looking only at the topsites config alone, having amazon.com as a search shortcut for "de" region should be a no. The logic behind setting top-sites search-shortcuts while integrating with search-config is not detailed anywhere though. Mark/Dao, could you detail how search-config set engine affects the top-sites config and its application in these cases?

Comment 4

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

From a search config perspective, we deploy amazon.com to en-US / DE combination at the moment (rather than amazon.de).

So I'm guessing we're out of sync here at the moment. I did think there was something in the top sites code about not showing search shortcuts if the engine wasn't installed, but that might be not applicable here - Dão should know the actual algorithm.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #4)

From a search config perspective, we deploy amazon.com to en-US / DE combination at the moment (rather than amazon.de).

So I'm guessing we're out of sync here at the moment. I did think there was something in the top sites code about not showing search shortcuts if the engine wasn't installed, but that might be not applicable here - Dão should know the actual algorithm.

The search shortcut creation ignores the eTLD, e.g. if the top site configuration says https://www.amazon.de/ and amazon.com is installed as an engine, we might pick that: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/3f97afc8db535f9b0232222cb48cc4cbf8334c76/browser/components/newtab/lib/TopSitesFeed.jsm#781-787 (note, shortURL strips the eTLD).

Comment 6

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I think with the recent Amazon deployment changes, this is now WFM.