908844 - Add UTM parameters to Mozilla logo on about:home

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris More [:cmore]]

Within about:home in Firefox desktop on the top right is the Mozilla logo. That logo is linked to www.mozilla.org/about/. We would like to understand how much traffic is coming from the browser to www.mozilla.org. The reason that we cannot do it now is that since about:home is not a webpage the referring headers are blank and thus it looks like "direct" traffic. Since direct traffic can be any number of things, we cannot effectively segment the traffic to only traffic from the browser.

What we could do to solve this is to add UTM parameters to the URL so that we can say when a value of a query parameters equals a specific value, we know that it is from the browser. 

The code is here:

http://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/base/content/abouthome/aboutHome.xhtml on line 70.

70 <a id="aboutMozilla" href="http://www.mozilla.org/about/"/>

Would just need to include UTM parameters after the /about/. Gareth Cull can advise on what the URL should be.

Comment 1

[Gareth Cull [:garethc]]

Can we please set the URL to: http://www.mozilla.org/about/?utm_source=about-home&utm_medium=Referral

Comment 2

[Chris More [:cmore]]

Gavin: Also, can you help get this one in front of the right eyes?

The new value should be:

70 <a id="aboutMozilla" href="http://www.mozilla.org/about/?utm_source=about-home&utm_medium=Referral"/>

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

While we're at it, let's also switch to https. Any objections?

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 5

[Chris More [:cmore]]

https works for me!

Comment 6

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

no objections from me, thanks for bringing this on.

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/eee919f11f5a

Comment 8

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Failed to properly escape the ampersand, how embarrassing:

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/e373ba1b3ce7

Comment 9

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/eee919f11f5a
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/e373ba1b3ce7

Comment 10

[Chris More [:cmore]]

When will this land in any of the Firefox release channels?

Comment 11

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

This landed in Firefox 27, so January 21st: https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar

Seems safe to uplift to Aurora/Beta if there's a need for it, though.

Comment 12

[Chris More [:cmore]]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #11)
> This landed in Firefox 27, so January 21st:
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/RapidRelease/Calendar
> 
> Seems safe to uplift to Aurora/Beta if there's a need for it, though.

I wouldn't mind an uplift to gauge the traffic levels sooner than later. Thanks

Comment 13

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Comment on attachment 812334 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

[Approval Request Comment]
Bug caused by (feature/regressing bug #): N/A
User impact if declined: N/A
Testing completed (on m-c, etc.): N/A
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): no risk
String or IDL/UUID changes made by this patch: none

(see comment 12 for rationale)

Comment 14

[Alex Keybl [:akeybl]]

Comment on attachment 812334 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Too late in the cycle for Beta (even though we're 99.9% sure this wouldn't cause a regression). It's jut not critical enough to take any risk.

Comment 15

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-aurora/rev/24480f0cfcc7