2010941 - Autofill suggests urls that aren't relevant to the user

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P1)

Description

[James Teow [:jteow]]

A number of users on Reddit have reported seeing a high number of autofill suggestion of a URL they rarely visit.

One way we can mitigate this is by :mak's suggesting de-emphasizing not-typed links:

SELECT SUM(f) FROM (
            SELECT CAST(MAX(h.frecency) * CASE MAX(h.typed) WHEN 0 THEN 0.5 ELSE 1 END AS INTEGER) AS f
            FROM moz_places h
            WHERE origin_id = moz_origins.id
            AND last_visit_date >
              strftime('%s','now','localtime','start of day',
                       '-90 day','utc') * 1000000
            GROUP BY date(last_visit_date / 1000000, 'unixepoch')
          )

As I suspect most of the issue is interstitial pages, or anyway pages that the user is less likely to type/pick/remember.

Comment 1

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Attachment: Bug 2010941 - Part 1: Autofill origins only when they are typed - r?mak!

Comment 4

[Pascal Chevrel (relman team) -> :pascalc]

James, given all this feedback is recent, is that a regression and if it is, what is the regressor? Thanks

Comment 6

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Attachment: Bug 2010941 - Part 2: Fix tests - r?mak!

Comment 7

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The bug is marked as tracked for firefox147 (release), tracked for firefox148 (beta) and tracked for firefox149 (nightly). However, the bug still has low severity.

:cbellini, could you please increase the severity for this tracked bug? If you disagree with the tracking decision, please talk with the release managers.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/3b3c873ceafe
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/271e62e81159
Part 1: Autofill origins only when they are typed - r=mak,places-reviewers,urlbar-reviewers
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/e68f49b4337c
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ba6defeda830
Part 2: Fix tests - r=mak,urlbar-reviewers,places-reviewers

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/c3e66f22bef8
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/1ece16b1f0a5
Revert "Bug 2010941 - Part 2: Fix tests - r=mak,urlbar-reviewers,places-reviewers" for causing bc failures @ browser_move_tab_to_new_window.js

Comment 10

[Norisz Fay [:noriszfay]]

Backed out for causing bc failures @ browser_move_tab_to_new_window.js

Backout link

Push with failures

Failure log

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/841d88a557c0
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ac586b657d89
Part 1: Autofill origins only when they are typed - r=mak,places-reviewers,urlbar-reviewers
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/350a366be2ed
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/8c0f9f6efb37
Part 2: Fix tests - r=mak,urlbar-reviewers,places-reviewers

Comment 12

[Serban Stanca [:SerbanS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ac586b657d89
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8c0f9f6efb37

Comment 13

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:jteow, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?

• If yes, please nominate the patch for beta approval.
  • See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Requesting_an_Uplift for documentation on how to request an uplift.
• If no, please set status-firefox148 to wontfix.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 15

[James Teow [:jteow]]

There's a strong chance we'll uplift this to Beta but we're going to wait a bit more time to see if there are any issues that pop-up as a result of the change.

I also think S3 is a sufficient evaluation.

Comment 17

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Attachment: Bug 2010941 - Part 1: Autofill origins only when they are typed -

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D279386

Comment 18

[James Teow [:jteow]]

Attachment: Bug 2010941 - Part 2: Fix tests -

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D279842

Comment 19

[Phabricator Automation]

firefox-beta Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: On Release we found users often saw autofill results that were not relevant to them. This patch adjusts the algorithm and makes it less likely for origins matching URLs that were rarely visited and only through link clicks to appear more frequently than other origins that were typed more often in the address bar.
• Code covered by automated testing: yes
• Fix verified in Nightly: yes
• Needs manual QE test: no
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing:
• Risk associated with taking this patch: low
• Explanation of risk level: While we do need to recalculate rows in the moz_origins database which affects the autofill user experience, we saw no spike of related bugs following the patch landing in Nightly. While tweaking autofill does have an impact to UX of the address bar, a regression would probably come from the form of less ideal suggestions as opposed to something that is completely broken.
• String changes made/needed: No.
• Is Android affected?: no

Comment 20

[Pulsebot]

https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/69526adb3f2e
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/078c64726810
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/9c87efe35d96
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/b591290b46d1