You’ve heard, by now, that Apple’s newest phone will include Siri, “virtual assistant” technology. Voice commands have been around for awhile, but Apple is, arguably, opening the technology to everyday, wide-scale use.
Which is just a reminder: keywords aren’t always the best way to find things. In a world where audio and video are becoming commonplace, the evidence you need might not be in easily-searchable text format. Your witness won’t type in a search request, he or she will speak it. Starting now, you’re looking for the ‘Assistant’ audio searches, not just e-mails and texts.
Keywords continue to be the most common way to find data, but they’re just the beginning, not the end, of e-discovery.