Welcome to the November 2020 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month to help technology marketers maximize relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. In this month’s analysis, we focus on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus October 2020) and year-over-year (versus November 2019). 

Remember a year ago, when we were all talking about E-commerce (#1), Wi-Fi (#2) and Artificial Intelligence (#3) as dominant tech trends? While so much has changed in 2020, much has also stayed the same. E-commerce again ranked #1 in November 2020, up from #3 in October – driven by 52% higher citation volume versus a year ago, as holiday shopping shifted online in a stay-at-home world. 

Meanwhile, Contract Tracing ranked #2 in November (up exponentially from last year when it ranked #161), followed by Video Conferencing at #3 (up from #29 with 500% more citations). Artificial Intelligence and Wi-Fi came in at #9 and #10, down14% and 21% respectively from a year ago. Two other topics in the top 10 now that were not there last year: Misinformation, up from #18 to #7 with (227% more citations), and Layoffs/Furloughs, up from #19 to #5 with (264% more citations). 

Changes from October 2020 were less monumental. Nine of 10 topics remained in the top 10, with Drones (now #11) swapping places with Artificial Intelligence (now #9). Six of the top 10 topics 

moved up from month to month: E-commerce (from #3 to #1), Video Conferencing (from #5 to #3), Supply Chain (from #6 to #4), Misinformation (from #7 to #6),  and Cybersecurity (from #8 to #7). Four topics moved down: Contract Tracing (from #1 to #2), Layoffs/Furloughs (from #2 to #5), 5G (from #4 to #8), and Wi-Fi (from #9 to #10).  

Beyond the top 10, the biggest gains were tied to mainstream news topics. Supply Chain Cybersecurity was up 220% due to attacks on Pfizer’s vaccine distribution. Infrastructure Security (+202%) and Election Security (+53%) were driven higher by the U.S. presidential election, while E-Commerce/Online Shopping Trends (+191%) and E-Commerce/Online Shopping Fraud (+75%) were driven higher by holiday shopping discussion. Other topics with strong gains in November (but not top rankings)  included Event–Driven Applications (#167, +79%), Gig Economy (#45, +76%), Serverless Tech (#166, +57%), Defense in Depth (#152, +49%) and Utility Computing (#177, +43%) 

“Biggest losses” were less dramatic. Only two terms – Data Operations (down –78%) and Humane Technology (down 60%) – registered a drop of 50% or more. Only eight additional topics – Serverless Platform, Application Integration, Attention Model, Threat Detection with Network/Enterprise/Cloud, Surveillance Capitalism, Ransomware, Growth Hacking and Identity Protection – lost more than one-third of their volume from October to November. Of those, the biggest ranking drops were Ransomware (from #28 to #39, down 33%) and Threat Detection (from #112 to #122, down 36%). 

Now what? In January we will analyze 2020 as a whole (won’t we all). We expect  E-commerce will remain strong through the holiday season, as will Video Conferencing as a dominant 2020 trend. Heading into 2021, with COVID-19 vaccines and a new presidential administration, we’ll start to see what shifts as the sociopolitical environment changes for business and technology leaders. For now, we wish you a safe and happy 2021.  

Questions? Comments? See a topic we are not tracking? Please share below, and we will address in future installments.