The Long Tail

Chris Anderson, the curator of the TED conferences, wrote a book called 'The Long Tail' a few years back. I haven't read it yet, but wanted to see if he writes a blog... and he does. It is called 'The Long Tail'.

He writes a post celebrating the fact that the book, like Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point', has become something that doesn't even need to be cited anymore as it has become part of common language.

Interesting clip...

What I enjoyed the most is the idea that people who work from home can really make a living out of things they love. The 'curry sisters' for example made me smile.

At what point does it cease to be advertising anyway? The old idea of advertising was that you bought space to interupt people. Split up their TV show, make them wait for the movie in the cinema, shout at them while they are driving their car. Online targeted advertising where advertisers only pay for converted sales is more like a very efficient referral system. The customer IS paying through the price of the final purchase they made, but they don't mind because in exchange they get to choose the content of the providers and get directed to the stuff they want.

Sounds like a win win to me.