Description

When clicking in the NTP Brave Search widget, it takes focus away from the NTP.

The expected behavior would be that clicking outside of the widget exits this "focus" mode and returns the NTP to the initial state.

However, unintended things can happen when clicking outside of the widget in that "focus" mode right now. A couple I noticed (don't know if there are others):

• the top sites shortcuts above the search widget are still clickable even if invisible
• if an NTT is present/loaded, depending on where you are clicking outside the search widget will take you to the call to action URL

Steps to reproduce

1. open a NTP
2. click in the Brave Search widget box to get focus
3. click outside of it if you don't want to search anymore (ESC also works but it is not immediately intuitive so I expect most users to click outside)

Actual result

when clicking outside of the search box:
3.1. depending on how large of an area the CTA of a loaded NTT is then users can accidentally click through on said NTT CTA URL
3.2. clicking in the area where the top sites are will trigger the specific top site to load

Expected result

No NTP CTAs should be active/clickable when the search box is in focus.
When clicking away from it, "focus mode" should exit and the NTP should return to the normal state, which then reactivates the other CTAs.

Reproduces how often

Easily reproduced

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave 1.85.117 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Channel information

• release (stable)
• beta
• nightly

Reproducibility

• with Brave Shields disabled
• with Brave Rewards disabled
• in the latest version of Chrome

Miscellaneous information

Windows 11 Pro, version 24H2