Variations Safe Mode attempts to bring the user back to a known-good state if they encounter a Variations config that seriously destabilizes their local Chrome instance. We currently have implemented a fairly tight threshold for instability in the form of crashes, but we have a very loose threshold for instability in the form of a broken network stack that prevents Chrome from fetching an updated config. We should tighten this latter threshold.

This is (most likely) not just a matter of choosing a smaller value for the threshold. Rather, we will need to identify a sharper metric for distinguishing a broken network stack from a network environment with no or poor connectivity.

Forked from bug 727984, which tracked the overall Safe Mode feature work.