A keyword search evaluates data by specific words or phrases to locate potentially relevant information. Keywords are often negotiated prior to discovery to determine what content will be produced to the opposing side. However, searching is not always as straightforward as people think. For instance, many file types, such as .tiff, PDF documents, CAD blueprints, and zip files, may not be captured by common search technology. Other obstacles include password protected documents, misspellings, poor optical character recognition (OCR), etc.
A comprehensive search incorporates not only case relevant terms, but also synonyms, code names, spelling variations, acronyms, abbreviations, etc. Once the search terms are selected, it is wise to test them on data set samples and fine-tune the keywords prior to processing the entire corpus of electronically stored information.
Even with thoughtful preparation and precaution, certain files will not be captured by any search engine. Accordingly, it is important to receive an exception report that details all files that, due to their format or file type, could not be searched.
