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The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand | 
| Author: Chris Anderson
Publisher: Random House Business Books
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.69
You Save: £2.30 (26%)
New (27) Used (10) from £2.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1515
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 1844138518
EAN: 9781844138517
ASIN: 1844138518
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 A winning concept August 7, 2008
Chris Andreson has written a down-to-earth, incisive and savvy page-turner to tell the story of how the almost unlimited choice brought about new internet-driven technologies has changed the rules of the game for business and the online/offline consumer markets.
Miss it at your peril.
 A mixed bag July 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I finished this book sometime ago, but had to ponder for a while before writing about it. My dilemma revolves around two points. First, it is an interesting, well written, read. Second, the evidence presented is entirely anecdotal.
Anderson's thesis is very simple. The rise of businesses like Amazon and eBay, coupled with the interpersonal communication facilities afforded by the Internet, has effectively created unlimited demand. He argues that he has identified a business opportunity to make a profit in niche areas that were not previously profitable.
The explanation given is fairly simple. The development of the Internet means that more people have access to minority items, and the development of filtering technology, especially collaborative filtering technology, means that people can identify material they are interested in more easily.
The concept is seductive and well argued. Unfortunately, more recent research (the book was published several years ago) is not really supporting the idea. Not only that, but I have been unable to find any examples of successful businesses just based on the long tail model. As the Western world slides into a recession of the next year or so, it will soon become clear whether this is yet another idea from the digeratii which is based on the assumption that the good times will last for ever, or contains some real meat.
Five stars for entertainment value. One star for lack of research!
Simple but infectious May 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall I really liked The Long Tail, I found it very interesting, well written and easy to read. The only slight criticism I have, which is the reason for the 4 star rating, is that is does feel as though it could have been shortened a little without losing any of the content.
The overarching idea of the book is that if you can drive down the costs of producing, distributing and finding content, people will start to move away from "hit-driven" mass-market content and start to find a world filled with niches that fill their desires more completely. It's not a particularly complex idea but it has some interesting potential consequences, as highlighted throughout the book.
Whether or not you should completely buy into this, or how far you may see it changing the way people find and consume things such as music and entertainment, is open to debate. What I can say is that since reading the book I have begun to notice elements of the Long Tail in action in many different places.
Uneven May 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Thought-provoking from both a cultural and commercial point of view, but it goes on a bit! Would have been better at half the length.
Simple, Smart Premise No Longer Ignored May 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand" by Chris Anderson claims that thar's gold in them thar hills. He tells us it is not a few big chunks we want, but many small nuggets.
Modern examples are Amazon.com and NetFlix, both of which sell plenty of Harry Potter products and the like. They also (or rent, as is with NetFlix) lots of less popular products. They hit the niche market hard. That's the gold.
The long tail is the curve's far end. At the top of the curve is Harry Potter, for example, along with other New York Times Bestsellers. These products certainly represent a significant amount of sales. However, so do the accumulated number of books and movies which might sell only a few copies a year. Add those up, and there is serious profit. While the tail in the curve is not high, it is long. One copy of, say. The Love, a Hungarian film, and one copy of The Very Best of Ralph Stanley, a bluegrass CD, might not sound like much, but the tail is long. Those, with thousands of other products sold each month, would make their seller very happy.
My own business is built on a long tail method. The market for Hungarian products is not like the Billboard Top 40. It is like the Billboard Bottom 20,000, if there were such a thing. It works.
Anderson's principles can be applied by small businesses like mine, and massive Fortune 500s looking to reach where few are reaching. The markets are there, and, by considering Anderson's ideas, so is the process.
I fully recommend "The Long Tail: How Endless Choice Is Creating Unlimited Demand" by Chris Anderson.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
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