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Status: Available
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OS: All
Pri: 3
Type: Bug



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Omnibox - Search Queries from History - Experiment With Only Inlining to End of Word

Project Member Reported by pkasting@chromium.org, Nov 30 2016

Issue description

Inline autocompletion for search queries is net-positive for users (see bug 172491 comment 16) but also triggers complaints (see related bug 172491 and bug 334300).

Multi-word queries tend to trigger the most complaints.  Users frequently refine past searches to add, remove, or change words; I assert without data that this is more common than similar URL modifications.  Therefore, aggressive past inline autocompletion is more annoying.

We should try inline-autocompleting only to the end of the currently-typed word and see whether this makes the behavior feel less frustrating, and what effect it has on metrics.  My suspicion is that the effect will look negative overall, but if the negative is small enough and this feels subjectively better, that could be a tradeoff worth taking.

If necessary, we could try to more carefully analyze searches with common prefixes to see how often people add/remove/change suffixes, but probably just running an experiment on the above behavior change would be an easier first step.
 
Additional related ideas / avenues for experimentation:

* Consider whether to keep the longer suggestion as an item in the dropdown or simply remove it (replacing it with the shorter suggestion that just goes to the end of the word).

* Consider whether we could do the same for search queries from the server.  I.e., only inline to the end of the current word.  The question in the first bullet point can apply here as well.

* Consider whether we should do this for queries that are not the top-scoring query.  For example, if I have the search query "on the media wrong number" in my history and type "on the m", even if "on the media wrong number" is not going to be inlined, we could consider offering the suggestion "on the media" in the dropdown (i.e., complete to the end of the word), perhaps instead of or in addition to the full query, and again perhaps on server-sourced suggestions or just history-sourced suggestions.

Reminder, this change affects a somewhat narrow slice of traffic (inputs for which we inline autoocomplete to something past the end of the current word).  Thus, we should use "counterfactual" logging to allow analysis on just the slice of traffic for which the user could've seen a change.  (Use set_field_trial_triggered() as appropriate.)
Labels: -Pri-2 Pri-3
I still think something here is worth doing.  But none of us are planning to work on it next quarter, so it's clearly implicitly a P3.
Labels: Hotlist-OmniboxRanking
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Comment 5 by sheriffbot@chromium.org, Jul 20

Labels: Hotlist-Recharge-Cold
Status: Untriaged (was: Available)
This issue has been Available for over a year. If it's no longer important or seems unlikely to be fixed, please consider closing it out. If it is important, please re-triage the issue.

Sorry for the inconvenience if the bug really should have been left as Available.

For more details visit https://www.chromium.org/issue-tracking/autotriage - Your friendly Sheriffbot
Status: Available (was: Untriaged)

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