The Long Tail Book Review: Chris Anderson

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/pLIzC)
 

The Long Tail Chris Anderson

The above picture is the revised updated edition that just came out for the Long Tail by Chris Anderson. I just got done reading the 2006 version of the book yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. I have been reading it off and on all month long.  This book really highlights the world we live in today with technology, digital distribution, and the infinite choices we find ourselves with every day. I have been thinking this way for a very long time, and I was happy to see someone wrote a book about it.  We are in a world with infinite possibilities, unlimited shelf space.  Because we have infinite choices we have to be given ways to make choices, whether by price, size, popularity, reviews, we need the tools. The idea of the long tail is how we are becoming more and more of a niche society in our tastes, and it's not about the short head or the hit anymore.  Hit meaning hit tv show, hit record, it's not about the masses anymore.  In the future the hits won't be forced upon us, we will get to choose with unlimited shelf space, and we then will see what is most popular, or maybe everything will be somewhat popular.  It's important to realize with popular sites like Ebay, Google, itunes, we are able to have so many possibilities to find exactly what we want, and the reason is with the internet it's becoming very economical to do so.   We are finding that categores are being created, and micro niches are being made up every day.  I would read this book and stay tuned to this concept for many years to come. It can either be a bad thing or a good thing depending on how you play it. I find it to be important as a consumer but also as a business owner that caters to consumers.  This is best being seen with search engines, search queries, movies, DVD's, music, etc.  It's the idea of Netflix vs. Blockbuster.  The idea of Amazon vs. Borders books.  Read the book to see how many more selections one has over the other, I think you may be surprised how great it is.  In the future we will see new artists emerge through video, music and other mediums of marketing.

 

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