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Reducing Excessive Typeahead Search Terms in Reports

Cameron McDonald
  • Updated

Customers have reported an increase in search terms appearing in reports. These additional entries are generated by browser typeahead (autocomplete) search features, which capture searches dynamically as users type in the search bar.

While this functionality provides detailed visibility into user search behavior, it can significantly increase report size and reduce overall report relevance.

This article explains how to filter out these typeahead search URIs to reduce report volume and improve clarity.

Cause

Modern browsers and search engines (including Bing) send background requests while users type in the search field. These requests commonly include URI patterns such as:

  • /complete/search

  • qbox?query=

  • qbox?edgasbingchat=1&query=

These requests are not full search submissions but incremental query suggestions, which results in excessive entries in reports.

Solution

To remove typeahead search entries from reports, add a Dynamic Filter to exclude specific URI patterns.

Basic Report Filter Configuration

Add the filter conditions for each  URI pattern to your report definition:

  • Field: URI

  • Condition: Not Contains Substring

  • Value: /complete/search

Important Note

Each filter condition must be added separately. This will ensure that the conditions will be combined using AND logic, not OR logic, to ensure all unwanted URI patterns are excluded. For example:

Recommended Dynamic Filter Configuration

The easiest way to apply this solution is to update the [Dynamic_Filter] in the report or report template using the Modify Definition button.

Add the following entries:

[dynamic_filter]
url= !% "/complete/search" 
url= !% "qbox?query=" 
url= !% "qbox?edgasbingchat=1&query="

Example Report Definition Snippet

After adding the above entries, your report definition should include a [Dynamic_Filter] section similar to the following:

Validation

After implementing the filter:

  1. Run the report.

  2. Confirm that typeahead search entries no longer appear.

  3. Verify that legitimate completed searches are still included.

  4. Specifically confirm expected behavior for Bing searches.

Result

Implementing these filters will:

  • Reduce report size

  • Improve report relevance

  • Eliminate noise caused by browser typeahead searches

  • Maintain visibility into actual completed search activity

Note: If additional typeahead-related URI patterns are identified, they should be added as separate Not Contains Substring filters using the same method described above.

 
 
 

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