1917181 - [Unified Search Button] Handoff search from newtab while in search mode is confusing

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P2)

Description

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Found in

• Nightly 132.0a1;

Affected versions

• Nightly 132.0a1;

Affected platforms

• Ubuntu 22;
• macOS 14;
• Windows 10;

Preconditions

• Have browser.urlbar.scotchBonnet.enableOverride set to true

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Firefox and open a new tab.
2. Open the Dedicated Search Button and enter searchmode for any search engine.
3. Input any string and submit the search.

Expected result

• Search is made, searchmode for the selected engine is dismissed.

Actual result

• Search is made, searchmode for the selected engine is NOT dismissed.

Regression range

• last good: 2024-09-02
• first bad: 2024-09-03
• pushlog: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=3d75e1bf2b01b7d381820d359c8285103300b26a&tochange=00bf44b17240ea469e380823038cc4547993a621
• potentially regressed by: bug 1893071

Comment 1

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

Set release status flags based on info from the regressing bug 1893071

:daleharvey, since you are the author of the regressor, bug 1893071, could you take a look?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 2

[Petruta Horea [:phorea], Desktop Test Engineering]

Attachment: result after search

Also related (I won't log a new bug since the regressor is the same):

1. Open a new tab
2. Open the Dedicated Search Button and enter searchmode for any search engine except the default one
3. Dismiss the Dedicated Search dropdown
4. Start typing in the dedicated search field from newtab page (not the address bar) and press Enter

Expected: Search is made with the default search engine
Actual: Search engine set in step 2 is kept and search is made with it

Comment 3

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Hi Josh, this came up in our bug scrub and we were wondering if the current behaviour makes sense? Showing a URL on the page with search mode enabled might not be the most useful thing to have in the address bar. We were also thinking of how this acts if persisted search terms isn't enabled since we did discuss that we might have Scotch Bonnet released without that feature.

Comment 4

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

The bug being filed is invalid as this is explicitly what the new behaviour should do.

However the bug described in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1917181#c2 is valid handing off from a google search box to a ddg search mode urlbar is confusing, it seems likely that handoff should clear any search mode here.

Comment 5

[Josh Berman]

Does this still require further POV from myself or is Dale's comment sufficient?

Comment 6

[James Teow [:jteow]]

I think the expected behaviour for this is dependent on Persisted Search Terms. Bug 1913312 will allow search terms to persist on non-default SERPs like in this case of DDG.

If Persisted Search Terms is disabled, it would be confusing to show the URL next to the search chicklet as the user would be refining a URL instead of a search term. And because it is in dedicated search mode, refining the url or changing the url altogether still wouldn't allow the user to navigate to it unless they also cleared the chicklet.

So after talking with Josh, we came to an agreement that if Persisted Search is disabled, there doesn't seem to be as much value in Persisting the Search Mode. Instead, the Unified Search Button should be shown in this case instead of the Chicklet. WDYT, Dale?