Hey @AnneT! I keep forgetting to add my take here. I think that both renaming and moving TahS to its own ("Patterns"?) section would make sense (specially if we determine that we're definitely not handling a core component).

Nevertheless, I do find that a first (easier) step to alleviate confusion – while we figure everything out – could be adding some clarifying lines in the docs. I think that the main difference between Lookup and TahS is that the former is an input component*: users search the Lookup only to obtain a list of options from which they can select a value to input (e.g. in a form). While, as you mention, TahS offers options that allow users to navigate away from their current page, into a new one that contains content related to their search.

(*In terms of naming, maybe it would help if we renamed cdx-Lookup to cdx-LookupInput?)

@Sarai-WMDE How does this plan sound:

1. Update the Lookup and TypeaheadSearch docs to state that Lookup is a "predictive input" while TahS is for searching and navigating to new content
2. Implement the component groupings as part of T309109 since that will separate Lookup and TypeaheadSearch into different groups
3. Re-evaluate if we need to change "Lookup" to "LookupInput". I'm hoping the changes in the first two steps will be sufficient, because I do think semantically "Lookup" is the better name, but if we feel we need additional clarity, this will be a useful path for that.

Taking this out as child from typeaheadsearch on codex. as not part of the MVP for Typeaheadsearch. Will link to beta release epic

Moving from sprint to backlog per:

In T304463#7977879, @DAbad wrote:

Taking this out as child from typeaheadsearch on codex. as not part of the MVP for Typeaheadsearch. Will link to beta release epic

Without much context on how you all think about component taxonomy, I could see the difference here as a matter of configuration. I wonder if it's worth considering merging the two components...high level they seem more similar than different: an input box with an accompanying menu based on what you've input.

Hey @alexhollender_WMF 👋🏻 We decided that these components shouldn't be merged. As explained in the comment above, Lookup and TypeaheadSearch share visual and functional similarities related to autocomplete/prediction, but we believe that they are essentially different.
The first is an input: users type in the Lookup to retrieve an option that they ultimately want to select as part of a process (e.g. select a template), or to see reflected in a form/UI (e.g. property selector in Wikidata). In the context of Lookup, navigating to menu options is secondary (it's allowed mostly to let users confirm their selection). On the other hand, Typeahead is a search element that belongs to the search/navigation system of a project. TahS doesn't allow inputting information in a form (the input/selection doesn't need to be preserved), instead, the result of selecting any of the retrieved results is navigation.

@AnneT I just created a task (T315993) to update the component descriptions in their demo pages.

We included a section for "When to use" each component in Codex, clarifying when to use TypeaheadSearch or Lookup so I guess we can solve this task @AnneT