Telemetry 

This section describes existing telemetry probes measuring interaction with the Address Bar.

For telemetry specific to Firefox Suggest, see the Firefox Suggest Telemetry document.

Histograms 

PLACES_AUTOCOMPLETE_1ST_RESULT_TIME_MS

This probe tracks the amount of time it takes to get the first result. It is an exponential histogram with values between 5 and 100.

PLACES_AUTOCOMPLETE_6_FIRST_RESULTS_TIME_MS

This probe tracks the amount of time it takes to get the first six results. It is an exponential histogram with values between 50 and 1000.

FX_URLBAR_SELECTED_RESULT_METHOD

This probe tracks how a result was picked by the user from the list. It is a categorical histogram with these values:

enter The user pressed Enter without selecting a result first. This most likely happens when the user confirms the default preselected result (aka heuristic result), or when they select with the keyboard a one-off search button and confirm with Enter.

enterSelection The user selected a result, but not using Tab or the arrow keys, and then pressed Enter. This is a rare and generally unexpected event, there may be exotic ways to select a result we didn’t consider, that are tracked here. Look at arrowEnterSelection and tabEnterSelection for more common actions.

click The user clicked on a result.

arrowEnterSelection The user selected a result using the arrow keys, and then pressed Enter.

tabEnterSelection The first key the user pressed to select a result was the Tab key, and then they pressed Enter. Note that this means the user could have used the arrow keys after first pressing the Tab key.

rightClickEnter Before QuantumBar, it was possible to right-click a result to highlight but not pick it. Then the user could press Enter. This is no more possible.

FX_URLBAR_ZERO_PREFIX_DWELL_TIME_MS

This probe records the amount of time the zero-prefix view was shown; that is, the time from when it was opened to the time it was closed. “Zero-prefix” means the search string was empty, so the zero-prefix view is the view that’s shown when the user clicks in the urlbar before typing a search string. Often it’s also called the “top sites” view since normally it shows the user’s top sites. This is an exponential histogram whose values range from 0 to 60,000 with 50 buckets. Values are in milliseconds. This histogram was introduced in Firefox 110.0 in bug 1806765.

PLACES_FRECENCY_RECALC_CHUNK_TIME_MS

This records the time necessary to recalculate frecency of a chunk of pages, as defined in the PlacesFrecencyRecalculator module.

Scalars 

urlbar.abandonment

A uint recording the number of abandoned engagements in the urlbar. An abandonment occurs when the user begins using the urlbar but stops before completing the engagement. This can happen when the user clicks outside the urlbar to focus a different part of the window. It can also happen when the user switches to another window while the urlbar is focused.

urlbar.autofill_deletion

A uint recording the deletion count for autofilled string in the urlbar. This occurs when the user deletes whole autofilled string by BACKSPACE or DELETE key while the autofilled string is selected.

urlbar.engagement

A uint recording the number of engagements the user completes in the urlbar. An engagement occurs when the user navigates to a page using the urlbar, for example by picking a result in the urlbar panel or typing a search term or URL in the urlbar and pressing the enter key.

urlbar.impression.*

A uint recording the number of impression that was displaying when user picks any result.

autofill_about For about-page type autofill.

autofill_adaptive For adaptive history type autofill.

autofill_origin For origin type autofill.

autofill_other Counts how many times some other type of autofill result that does not have a specific scalar was shown. This is a fallback that is used when the code is not properly setting a specific autofill type, and it should not normally be used. If it appears in the data, it means we need to investigate and fix the code that is not properly setting a specific autofill type.

autofill_url For url type autofill.

urlbar.persistedsearchterms.view_count

A uint that is incremented when search terms should be persisted in the Urlbar. This will trigger when a user loads a SERP from any SAP that results in the search terms persisting in the Urlbar, as well as switching to a tab containing a SERP that should be persisting the search terms in the Urlbar, regardless of whether a PopupNotification is present. Thus, for every revert_by_popup_count, there should be at least one corresponding view_count.

urlbar.tips

This is a keyed scalar whose values are uints and are incremented each time a tip result is shown, a tip is picked, and a tip’s help button is picked. The keys are:

intervention_clear-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the clear-history search intervention.

intervention_clear-picked Incremented when the user picks the clear-history search intervention.

intervention_clear-shown Incremented when the clear-history search intervention is shown.

intervention_refresh-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the refresh-Firefox search intervention.

intervention_refresh-picked Incremented when the user picks the refresh-Firefox search intervention.

intervention_refresh-shown Incremented when the refresh-Firefox search intervention is shown.

intervention_update_ask-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the update_ask search intervention, which is shown when there’s a Firefox update available but the user’s preference says we should ask them to download and apply it.

intervention_update_ask-picked Incremented when the user picks the update_ask search intervention.

intervention_update_ask-shown Incremented when the update_ask search intervention is shown.

intervention_update_refresh-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the update_refresh search intervention, which is shown when the user’s browser is up to date but they triggered the update intervention. We show this special refresh intervention instead.

intervention_update_refresh-picked Incremented when the user picks the update_refresh search intervention.

intervention_update_refresh-shown Incremented when the update_refresh search intervention is shown.

intervention_update_restart-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the update_restart search intervention, which is shown when there’s an update and it’s been downloaded and applied. The user needs to restart to finish.

intervention_update_restart-picked Incremented when the user picks the update_restart search intervention.

intervention_update_restart-shown Incremented when the update_restart search intervention is shown.

intervention_update_web-help Incremented when the user picks the help button in the update_web search intervention, which is shown when we can’t update the browser or possibly even check for updates for some reason, so the user should download the latest version from the web.

intervention_update_web-picked Incremented when the user picks the update_web search intervention.

intervention_update_web-shown Incremented when the update_web search intervention is shown.

tabtosearch-shown Increment when a non-onboarding tab-to-search result is shown, once per engine per engagement. Please note that the number of times non-onboarding tab-to-search results are picked is the sum of all keys in urlbar.searchmode.tabtosearch. Please also note that more detailed telemetry is recorded about both onboarding and non-onboarding tab-to-search results in urlbar.tabtosearch.*. These probes in urlbar.tips are still recorded because urlbar.tabtosearch.* is not currently recorded in Release.

tabtosearch_onboard-shown Incremented when a tab-to-search onboarding result is shown, once per engine per engagement. Please note that the number of times tab-to-search onboarding results are picked is the sum of all keys in urlbar.searchmode.tabtosearch_onboard.

searchTip_onboard-picked Incremented when the user picks the onboarding search tip.

searchTip_onboard-shown Incremented when the onboarding search tip is shown.

searchTip_redirect-picked Incremented when the user picks the redirect search tip.

searchTip_redirect-shown Incremented when the redirect search tip is shown.

urlbar.searchmode.*

This is a set of keyed scalars whose values are uints incremented each time search mode is entered in the Urlbar. The suffix on the scalar name describes how search mode was entered. Possibilities include:

bookmarkmenu Used when the user selects the Search Bookmarks menu item in the Library menu.

handoff Used when the user uses the search box on the new tab page and is handed off to the address bar. NOTE: This entry point was disabled from Firefox 88 to 91. Starting with 91, it will appear but in low volume. Users must have searching in the Urlbar disabled to enter search mode via handoff.

keywordoffer Used when the user selects a keyword offer result.

oneoff Used when the user selects a one-off engine in the Urlbar.

shortcut Used when the user enters search mode with a keyboard shortcut or menu bar item (e.g. Accel+K).

tabmenu Used when the user selects the Search Tabs menu item in the tab overflow menu.

tabtosearch Used when the user selects a tab-to-search result. These results suggest a search engine when the search engine’s domain is autofilled.

tabtosearch_onboard Used when the user selects a tab-to-search onboarding result. These are shown the first few times the user encounters a tab-to-search result.

topsites_newtab Used when the user selects a search shortcut Top Site from the New Tab Page.

topsites_urlbar Used when the user selects a search shortcut Top Site from the Urlbar.

touchbar Used when the user taps a search shortct on the Touch Bar, available on some Macs.

typed Used when the user types an engine alias in the Urlbar.

historymenu Used when the user selects the Search History menu item in a History menu.

other Used as a catchall for other behaviour. We don’t expect this scalar to hold any values. If it does, we need to correct an issue with search mode entry points.

The keys for the scalars above are engine and source names. If the user enters a remote search mode with a built-in engine, we record the engine name. If the user enters a remote search mode with an engine they installed (e.g. via OpenSearch or a WebExtension), we record other (not to be confused with the urlbar.searchmode.other scalar above).

When a user enters local search mode, we record the English name of the result source (e.g., “bookmarks,” “history,” “tabs”). If they enter local search mode via typed, we record the result source name with the suffix “keyword” or “symbol,” depending on whether the user used a symbol (^, %, *, >) or a keyword (@tabs, @bookmarks, @history, @actions). If they enter local search mode through keywordoffer, we record the result source name with the suffix “keyword” when they select a restrict keyword.

Note that we slightly modify the engine name for some built-in engines: we flatten all localized Amazon sites (Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, etc.) to “Amazon” and we flatten all localized Wikipedia sites (Wikipedia (en), Wikipedia (fr), etc.) to “Wikipedia”. This is done to reduce the number of keys used by these scalars.

Changelog

Firefox 132
The scalar keys for urlbar.searchmode.typed and urlbar.searchmode.keywordoffer have been updated.

For urlbar.searchmode.typed:

If the user enters local search mode using a restrict keyword (@tabs, @history, @bookmarks, @actions) the scalar key is prefixed with “keyword”.

If the user enters via a symbol (%, ^, *, >) the key is prefixed with “symbol”.

For example, in history search mode:

If entered via a restrict keyword, the scalar key recorded is history_keyword.

If entered via a symbol, the scalar key recorded is history_symbol.

For urlbar.searchmode.keywordoffer:

If the user uses a restrict keyword through the keywordoffer method, the scalar key is prefixed with “keyword”.

Please note that symbols cannot trigger the urlbar.searchmode.keywordoffer telemetry, as symbols are only valid for typed. [Bug 1919180]

urlbar.picked.*

This is a set of keyed scalars whose values are uints incremented each time a result is picked from the Urlbar. The suffix on the scalar name is the result type. The keys for the scalars above are the 0-based index of the result in the urlbar panel when it was picked.

Note

Available from Firefox 84 on. Use the FX_URLBAR_SELECTED_* histograms in earlier versions.

Note

Firefox 102 deprecated autofill and added autofill_about, autofill_adaptive, autofill_origin, autofill_other, autofill_preloaded, and autofill_url. In Firefox 116, autofill_preloaded was removed.

Valid result types are:

autofill This scalar was deprecated in Firefox 102 and replaced with autofill_about, autofill_adaptive, autofill_origin, autofill_other, autofill_preloaded, and autofill_url. Previously it was recorded in each of the cases that the other scalars now cover.

autofill_about An autofilled “about:” page URI (e.g., about:config). The user must first type “about:” to trigger this type of autofill.

autofill_adaptive An autofilled URL from the user’s adaptive history. This type of autofill differs from autofill_url in two ways: (1) It’s based on the user’s adaptive history, a particular type of history that associates the user’s search string with the URL they pick in the address bar. (2) It autofills full URLs instead of “up to the next slash” partial URLs. For more information on this type of autofill, see this adaptive history autofill document.

autofill_origin An autofilled origin from the user’s history. Typically “origin” means a domain or host name like “mozilla.org”. Technically it can also include a URL scheme or protocol like “https” and a port number like “:8000”. Firefox can autofill domain names by themselves, domain names with schemes, domain names with ports, and domain names with schemes and ports. All of these cases count as origin autofill. For more information, see this adaptive history autofill document.

autofill_other Counts how many times some other type of autofill result that does not have a specific keyed scalar was picked at a given index. This is a fallback that is used when the code is not properly setting a specific autofill type, and it should not normally be used. If it appears in the data, it means we need to investigate and fix the code that is not properly setting a specific autofill type.

autofill_url An autofilled URL or partial URL from the user’s history. Firefox autofills URLs “up to the next slash”, so to trigger URL autofill, the user must first type a domain name (or trigger origin autofill) and then begin typing the rest of the URL (technically speaking, its path). As they continue typing, the URL will only be partially autofilled up to the next slash, or if there is no next slash, to the end of the URL. This allows the user to easily visit different subpaths of a domain. For more information, see this adaptive history autofill document.

bookmark A bookmarked URL.

bookmark_adaptive A bookmarked URL retrieved from adaptive history.

clipboard A URL retrieved from the system clipboard.

dynamic A specially crafted result, often used in experiments when basic types are not flexible enough for a rich layout.

dynamic_wikipedia A dynamic Wikipedia Firefox Suggest result.

extension Added by an add-on through the omnibox WebExtension API.

formhistory A search suggestion from previous search history.

history A URL from history.

history_adaptive A URL from history retrieved from adaptive history.

keyword A bookmark keyword.

navigational A navigational suggestion Firefox Suggest result.

quickaction A QuickAction.

quicksuggest A Firefox Suggest (a.k.a. quick suggest) suggestion.

remotetab A tab synced from another device.

restrict_keyword_actions A restrict keyword result to enter search mode for actions.

restrict_keyword_bookmarks A restrict keyword result to enter search mode for bookmarks.

restrict_keyword_history A restrict keyword result to enter search mode for history.

restrict_keyword_tabs A restrict keyword result to enter search mode for tabs.

searchengine A search result, but not a suggestion. May be the default search action or a search alias.

searchsuggestion A remote search suggestion.

switchtab An open tab.

tabtosearch A tab to search result.

tip A tip result.

topsite An entry from top sites.

trending A trending suggestion.

unknown An unknown result type, a bug should be filed to figure out what it is.

visiturl The user typed string can be directly visited.

weather A Firefox Suggest weather suggestion.

urlbar.picked.searchmode.*

This is a set of keyed scalars whose values are uints incremented each time a result is picked from the Urlbar while the Urlbar is in search mode. The suffix on the scalar name is the search mode entry point. The keys for the scalars are the 0-based index of the result in the urlbar panel when it was picked.

Note

These scalars share elements of both urlbar.picked.* and urlbar.searchmode.*. Scalar name suffixes are search mode entry points, like urlbar.searchmode.*. The keys for these scalars are result indices, like urlbar.picked.*.

Note

These data are a subset of the data recorded by urlbar.picked.*. For example, if the user enters search mode by clicking a one-off then selects a Google search suggestion at index 2, we would record in both urlbar.picked.searchsuggestion and urlbar.picked.searchmode.oneoff.

urlbar.tabtosearch.*

This is a set of keyed scalars whose values are uints incremented when a tab-to-search result is shown, once per engine per engagement. There are two sub-probes: urlbar.tabtosearch.impressions and urlbar.tabtosearch.impressions_onboarding. The former records impressions of regular tab-to-search results and the latter records impressions of onboarding tab-to-search results. The key values are identical to those of the urlbar.searchmode.* probes: they are the names of the engines shown in the tab-to-search results. Engines that are not built in are grouped under the key other.

Note

Due to the potentially sensitive nature of these data, they are currently collected only on pre-release version of Firefox. See bug 1686330.

urlbar.zeroprefix.abandonment

A uint recording the number of abandonments of the zero-prefix view. “Zero-prefix” means the search string was empty, so the zero-prefix view is the view that’s shown when the user clicks in the urlbar before typing a search string. Often it’s called the “top sites” view since normally it shows the user’s top sites. “Abandonment” means the user opened the zero-prefix view but it was closed without the user picking a result inside it. This scalar was introduced in Firefox 110.0 in bug 1806765.

urlbar.zeroprefix.engagement

A uint recording the number of engagements in the zero-prefix view. “Zero-prefix” means the search string was empty, so the zero-prefix view is the view that’s shown when the user clicks in the urlbar before typing a search string. Often it’s called the “top sites” view since normally it shows the user’s top sites. “Engagement” means the user picked a result inside the view. This scalar was introduced in Firefox 110.0 in bug 1806765.

urlbar.zeroprefix.exposure

A uint recording the number of times the user was exposed to the zero-prefix view; that is, the number of times it was shown. “Zero-prefix” means the search string was empty, so the zero-prefix view is the view that’s shown when the user clicks in the urlbar before typing a search string. Often it’s called the “top sites” view since normally it shows the user’s top sites. This scalar was introduced in Firefox 110.0 in bug 1806765.

urlbar.quickaction.picked

A uint recording the number of times the user selected a quickaction, the key is in the form $key-$n where $n is the number of characters the user typed in order for the suggestion to show. See bug 1783155.

urlbar.unifiedsearchbutton.opened

A uint recording the number of times the user opens search mode popup via Unified Search Button. See bug 1936673.

urlbar.unifiedsearchbutton.picked

A uint recording the number of times the user selected a search mode via Unified Search Button. See bug 1936673.

places.*

This is Places related telemetry.

Valid result types are:

sponsored_visit_no_triggering_url Number of sponsored visits that could not find their triggering URL in history. We expect this to be a small number just due to the navigation layer manipulating URLs. A large or growing value may be a concern.

pages_need_frecency_recalculation Number of pages in need of a frecency recalculation. This number should remain small compared to the total number of pages in the database (see the PLACES_PAGES_COUNT histogram). It can be used to valuate the frequency and size of recalculations, for performance reasons.

The search engagement telemetry provided since Firefox 110 is is recorded using Glean events. Because of the data size, these events are collected only for a subset of the population, using the Glean Sampling feature. Please see the following documents for the details.

Engagement : It is defined as a completed action in urlbar, where a user picked one of the results.

Abandonment : It is defined as an action where the user open the results but does not complete an engagement action, usually unfocusing the urlbar. This also happens when the user switches to another window, if the results popup was opening.

Changelog

Firefox 128: The “actions” key was added to the engagement event. [Bug 1893067]
Firefox 125: The “impression” engagement event has been removed. [Bug 1878983]

Custom pings for Contextual Services 

Contextual Services currently has two features involving the address bar, top sites and Firefox Suggest. Top sites telemetry is sent in the “top-sites” ping, which is described in the linked Glean Dictionary page. For Firefox Suggest, see the Firefox Suggest Telemetry document.

Changelog

Firefox 122.0: PingCentre-sent custom pings removed. [Bug 1868580]
Firefox 116.0: The “top-sites” ping is implemented. [Bug 1836283]

Other telemetry relevant to the Address Bar 

Search Telemetry

Some of the search telemetry is also relevant to the address bar.

contextual.services.topsites.*

These keyed scalars instrument the impressions and clicks for sponsored top sites in the urlbar. The key is a combination of the source and the placement of the top sites link (1-based) such as ‘urlbar_1’. For each key, it records the counter of the impression or click. Note that these scalars are shared with the top sites on the newtab page.

Telemetry Environment

The following preferences relevant to the address bar are recorded in telemetry environment data:

browser.search.suggest.enabled: The global toggle for search suggestions everywhere in Firefox (search bar, urlbar, etc.). Defaults to true.

browser.urlbar.autoFill: The global preference for whether autofill in the urlbar is enabled. When false, all types of autofill are disabled.

browser.urlbar.autoFill.adaptiveHistory.enabled: True if adaptive history autofill in the urlbar is enabled.

browser.urlbar.suggest.searches: True if search suggestions are enabled in the urlbar. Defaults to false.

Firefox Suggest

Telemetry specific to Firefox Suggest is described in the Firefox Suggest Telemetry document.

Telemetry

Histograms