[Bug 1733970] [NEW] Google search suggestions do not work due to erroneous URL

[Neil Aspinall]

Public bug reported:

Release: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: firefox 57.0+build4-0ubuntu0.17.10.5

Google search suggestions (i.e. completion of search terms in the
address bar) will not work in this release.

Investigation shows that the problem lies in e.g.
/usr/lib/firefox/distribution/searchplugins/locale/en-GB/google.xml

Search suggestions are configured to use this URL:
https://www.google.com/complete/search?client=ubuntu&q={searchTerms}

However testing shows that this URL always fails with a 400 error, but if you replace the "ubuntu" in the URL with "firefox" (as the vanilla Firefox release has it) then it does work.
Compare the responses for these URLs:
https://www.google.com/complete/search?client=ubuntu&q=test
https://www.google.com/complete/search?client=firefox&q=test

So if I change "ubuntu" to "firefox" in google.xml, and then start
Firefox with a new profile, Google search suggestions start workng
again.

** Affects: firefox (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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Title:
  Google search suggestions do not work due to erroneous URL

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