Pursuant to Google Trends “eDiscovery” seems to be the most acceptable and used term when discussing (or searching) Electronic Discovery related topics (Google Trends). The trend has evolved overtime as “Electronic Discovery” & “E-Discovery” were respectfully competing for supremacy in 2010, but have experienced a steady decline since.

The most shocking discovery is that interest in eDiscovery does not seem to be growing. Could it be that the same niche group is behind these numbers every year? The lack of interest does not necessarily reflect the increase in eDiscovery related costs and cases as seen below.

“In a newly released study, International Data Corporation (IDC ) forecasts that worldwide eDiscovery services reached $8.2 billion at the end of 2015. Combined with an eDiscovery software market of just over $2 billion, the global eDiscovery market has eclipsed the $10 billion threshold. The total eDiscovery market is forecast to grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) pushing combined software and services over $14.7 billion by 2019.” – IDC Press Release

I am not implying that those within the industry have made a concerted effort to maintain exclusive rights over eDiscovery to potentially reap the financial benefits of having a unique skill set, but rather that our approach to eDiscovery may has alienated outsiders.

Lastly, why is it that no one wants to discuss eDiscovery in December? Apparently the jolly Christmas spirit does not translate over to increased interest in all things eDiscovery.

*I do understand that other search engines exist and users may utilize other search terms as well. This post is not meant to be a scientific study.

How Google Trends work – “Hover your mouse over the graph. The numbers that appear show total searches for a term relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. A line trending downward means that a search term’s relative popularity is decreasing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the total number of searches for that term is decreasing. It just means its popularity is decreasing compared to other searches.”