Affected versions

• Fx88.0a1

Affected platforms

• Windows 10
• Ubuntu 18.04
• macOS 10.15

Preconditions
Set browser.search.region to US and restart the browser
Have Duckduckgo set as your default engine.

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Firefox.
2. Using the URL bar search for 'iphone 12'.
3. In the search results page, click on an ad.
4. Open a new tab and search for 'buy stocks' and click on an ad in the search results page.
5. Open a new tab and search for 'apple mackbook pro 13' and click on an ad in the search results page.
6. Go to about:telemetry - > raw json and search for the ads telemetry pings.

Expected result

• Pings for browser.search.withads and browser.search.ad_clicks are recoreded.

Actual result

• No pings are recorded in telemetry.

Regression range

• This looks like a recent regression. The issue does not occur in Firefox 87.

Seems like the regression was introduced by:

Found commit message:
Bug 1663757 - Part 5: Add a test for CanonicalBrowsingContext.currentURI, r=annyG

I also tried finding a regression range and it narrowed it down to:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=8657e72a09f7d33560fe93a45a5520e07e129a1b&tochange=b4e320a8435636dcefbecd4b0973632f1e77377a

Bug 1696384 - Enable dom.event.wheel-deltaMode-lines.disabled in all channels.

:dharvey, this seems like it might be high severity? If so, could you prioritize and/or assign?

I'm starting to look at this, I'm trying to gather more information first to find out what's affected.

Telemetry shows a drop on nightly only from 11th March onwards, so 10th March as suggested by the commits in comment 1/2 is reasonable. This applies to both searches with ads and ad clicks.

Having looked into this I think the regressing bug is actually bug 1209947. That is causing onLocationChange to be triggered for sub-frames, which in turn is causing our telemetry tracking to stop tracking, as we weren't expecting that.

In any case, I have a patch to fix this now.

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c64e5bc64f64

Comment on attachment 9211231 [details]
Bug 1699467 - Don't stop monitoring SERP telemetry on sub-document loads.

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: N/A - This is fixing a telemetry issue.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: No
• If yes, steps to reproduce:
• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Small change that affects telemetry only.
• String changes made/needed: None

Comment on attachment 9211231 [details]
Bug 1699467 - Don't stop monitoring SERP telemetry on sub-document loads.

Thanks for sorting this out. Approved for 88.0b4.

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/fda386144a5e

Verified as fixed on:

• Ubuntu 18.04, Mac 10.14.6, Windows 10

using:

• 89.0a1 2021-03-31
• 88.0b5 2021-03-30