NF

interesting information
a little dry in places
plenty of supporting detail ( )

I'm a decade late, but I've finally read The Long Tail. The nice thing about having read this now is that it's clear just how true the vision of this book really is. From the entertainment media that Anderson analyzed to Kickstarter moving up the starting point of the long tail of physical goods from post-manufacture to pre-manufacture, we live in a world where niches are normal. This isn't to say that we've fully adapted to them or fully realized the opportunities, but being a long tail consumer is now mainstream.

Even though the ideas in this book are now common place, Anderson's book still provides a useful framework for thinking about the long tail. The first, and perhaps most important thing to remember is that the long tail is still the long tail. The still are hits. Even within niches there are hits and tails. However, what the long tail represents is moving from a world where access to content is cut off after the short head (e.g., because of limitations in physical shelf space) to where availability extends far beyond what use to be available.

Anderson models three factors as driving the shift to the long tail. The democratization of the tools of production allows many more people to create content. Talent is not limited to those who become popular, so some of this content will be quite good. Just as important, some of this content may be truly excellent but in a specialized area that doesn't have mainstream appeal. My personal favorite example is video blog style adaptations of classic literature -- something I love, but which would never get made if the only distribution channel were main stream media.

Because there is no so much content, aggregation and distribution mechanisms become vital to success. Aggregation of digital information takes the expected forms -- search engines both general and specialized -- but aggregation in the physical world also aids the long tail. E.g., centralizing goods in warehouses (or decentralizing through peer-to-peer selling) can give consumers more choice than just relying on what's available in local stores; a nation might have enough demand to make a product worth stocking where a city does not.

But so much content, is not useful if it cannot be easily found. Most of what is in the long tail is low quality, and much of it might be great but not what you are looking for. The long tail is only valuable if you can find what you want. Ranking and filtering provide this search functionality. Another important effect of ranking and filtering is to lead people down the tail. Most people don't start with niche tastes. These tastes develop over time as individuals build more expertise in that niche.

None of these ideas is particularly complex, but that is what gives them power. The long tail is interesting because it is, to some degree, inevitable in a world of dramatically increased availability.

One quibble I had with the book is Anderson's misinterpretation of Barry Schwartz's frame of satisficing and maximizing. Schwartz and Anderson likely do have fundamentally different views of the value of choice. Nonetheless, Anderson still misrepresents satisficing. He represents it as settling for the choices available. Schwartz's presentation of satisficing is more nuanced -- not, admittedly, because he thinks a flood of choice is good but because he acknowledges that it is inevitable. As Schwartz presents it, satisficing is not about settling but rather about being clear about what you want. If you're clear about what you want, you can change your mindset to be satisfied with once you've found options that fit your criteria even if you later learn of new options.

Overall though, this was worth the quick read. ( )

3.5 ( )

When this was published it was a seminal book that defined the new business model for the internet. Since then, things have moved on, and some of the subjected predicted in the book never did come to pass.

In essence, the long Tail is the niche products and services that large stores and business cannot justify holding, when they only sell one or two a year. A small business could offer this prior to the internet coming along, but it was primarily mail order, or very specialised.

Along come the internet, and suddenly your customers could find you far easier than ever before, and you could justify stocking the item that sold one a month. With the advent of digital products, the sales capacity is infinite.

It is very well written, and i really enjoyed reading it. ( )