Safari won't give you search suggestions if you are running iCloud Private Relay????

[SW3029]

For weeks I have been wondering why Safari stopped offering me Google search suggestions when I typed a search into the Safari URL/search bar. This drove me crazy as in Settings>Safari I have the "Search Engine Suggestions" toggle set to ON (the green color), but search suggestions weren't showing up.

I just found out why: when I shut off iCloud Private Relay, search suggestions appeared again.

So for some reason iCloud Private Relay blocks Google from sending you search suggestions in Safari. Anyone know the reason why Apple has chosen to do this? Could this be a bug?

 

[iStorm]

This probably isn't much help, but I have iCloud Private Relay turned on and the search suggestions are working for me. I'm using 16.4, but haven't noticed it being an issue in earlier versions either.

Just to rule it out... You weren't using Private Browsing Mode too, were you? Search suggestions will not show in Private Browsing Mode regardless of whether you are using Private Relay or not.