In a post a few weeks ago about the EMC acquisition of Kazeon, we mentioned the critical role of search technology in eDiscovery as being one of the key factors cited by EMC in closing the deal.  For some – like Jason Baron (the “King of Search”), Doug Oard of the University of Maryland, Patrick Oot of Verizon/The eDiscovery Institute/the Sedona Conference and the folks at DESI to name but a few – this has been well known for years; but for others, and perhaps even most of the eDiscovery industry, this epiphany (assuming it has happened for them) is a relatively new occurrence. 

Why the sudden interest in search technology in eDiscovery?  Our best guess is that the tireless efforts of the above individuals (among others, of course) has helped educate the market about how bad keyword-only search techniques can be.  And just how bad is rudimentary keyword search?  The 2009 TREC study found that keyword search alone STILL only finds 20% of relevant documents.  This hasn’t stopped opportunistic eDiscovery vendors (with little or no expertise in search, of course) from touting the “defensibility” or “transparency” of their keyword search approaches.  However, having a clear view of 20% of relevant documents still only gives one…a 20% picture of what’s going on.  As search experts, that is not exactly the approach we’d advocate taking.

But perhaps nothing more clearly demonstrates the critical connection between search technology/expertise and eDiscovery than Gartner Group’s just-released 2009 Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology.  This report identifies the leaders in the enterprise search market; in years past, the report has been dominated by vendors touting wares that focused solely on using search technology for knowledge management or eCommerce purposes.  No longer: in 2009, fully half of vendors in the “Leaders Quadrant” (3 of 6) position themselves as eDiscovery/compliance vendors.

What does this mean for eDiscovery and compliance practitioners?  With search occupying such a critical role in their practice areas, they would be wise to work with vendors who can offer more than just marketing buzz words.  This is one area where expertise really matters.