1836366 - Clarify labels in Firefox Settings UI for `Provide search suggestions` vs. `Show search suggestions in address bar results`

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Search, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

STR:

1. Visit about:preferences, "Search" section (or filter for "suggestion")
2. Look at the checkboxes under "Search Suggestions" and try to reason about what they might do:

[x] Provide search suggestions
  [x] Show search suggestions in address bar results

EXPECTED RESULTS:
It should be clear why there are these two checkboxes and what the difference between them is. (and what happens if you have the outer one checked but not the inner one)

ACTUAL RESULTS:
It's not clear what they do, and it's easy to misunderstand the inner option as toggling off more than it actually really does. The ...in address bar results makes more sense "old-school" Firefox where we still had the separated search-bar as the default/only experience -- but these days, we only have a single bar, by default (the Address Bar, using the terminology from these preferences). And un-checking the inner checkbox does not turn off suggestions in that Address Bar's results, if you start your text entry with Ctrl+K or by typing e.g. "@google".

Comment 1

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(This ambiguity between these checkboxes contributes to the ambiguity about how they might apply to trending-searches, in bug 1836319 . That bug inspired me to spin off this one, since from a certain perspective, that bug really boils down to these preference labels being confusing, which is this bug here.)

Comment 2

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(Side note, don't use today's nightly (2023-06-01) to test this bug, since the Preferences checkboxes are somewhat broken in today's Nightly -- that's bug 1836325 , which has since been fixed by backout. If anyone happens to look at this bug today, it'd be wise to take a look at it using mozregression to launch some other recent Nightly, or just use Firefox release, etc.)

Comment 3

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:adw, could you have a look please?

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Comment 4

[Stephanie Cunnane [:scunnane]]

Thanks for reporting this, Daniel. This is a known issue that we are planning to address soon.