It's no secret that cord cutting is a growing trend. In recent years, we've seen pay TV companies lose subscribers while OTT services like Netflix expand their reach. Now, we're seeing one more sign of cord cutting's growing appeal: search interest for the term has never been higher.

According to Google trends, 2016 has been the best year yet for search terms related to cord cutting. Searches for “cable,” “cable TV,” and “cable television,” on the other hand, are at their lowest points ever.

It's a finding that meshes with recent poll results that show that a majority of pay TV subscribers are at least considering cutting the cord, and it's one more piece of evidence that the cord cutting trend is growing.

Growth is massively important for cord cutters. While more products and services than ever are targeting cord cutters, it's worth remembering just how small our niche currently is. eMarketer recently pegged the number of cord cutting households in the U.S. at about 5 million – a solid number, but not a huge one in a country of nearly 320 million. Perhaps that's why Comcast insists that cord cutting isn't hurting them.

But data points like this suggest that cord cutting is still a growing trend, and that's good news for those of us who have already made the jump. As more people cut the cords, more companies will target our niche with new products and services, and that's a good thing. And so far, 2016 is trending in the right direction.