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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I'm rounding up here. It's makes great points about the long tail and how Internet retailing changes the market because it doesn't have to worry about scarcity and people will search beyond the blockbuster to buy and get things.
It's small at 200 pages but still fills a bit fluffed out. My biggest problem was how the author handled criticism. He either handwaved it away, thought it was still good, or simply said that better filters and post-filters were needed. For examples of successful music acts through the Internet he compared Bonnie McKee and My Chemical Romance, but he glossed over in one sentence that MCR was successful through their dogged touring schedule. Another example was how he handwaved the filter bubble wherein people will only read or listen to news/media/entertainment that fits their worldview. He says that it's not always a bad thing and that people are inclined to keep exploring. I just couldn't enjoy the dismissive and rosy-eyed view of how people use technology.
It also was profuse in its praise of Google and Amazon to the point that it felt reading a public bj lovefest; the author also shares some love by giving iTunes and Netflix handies. It's great for products but he only mentions a few example of how the long tail relates to services. It was a drag to read this book because it was too optimistic and praising and didn't seriously deal with downsides and criticism of the long tail.
It's small at 200 pages but still fills a bit fluffed out. My biggest problem was how the author handled criticism. He either handwaved it away, thought it was still good, or simply said that better filters and post-filters were needed. For examples of successful music acts through the Internet he compared Bonnie McKee and My Chemical Romance, but he glossed over in one sentence that MCR was successful through their dogged touring schedule. Another example was how he handwaved the filter bubble wherein people will only read or listen to news/media/entertainment that fits their worldview. He says that it's not always a bad thing and that people are inclined to keep exploring. I just couldn't enjoy the dismissive and rosy-eyed view of how people use technology.
It also was profuse in its praise of Google and Amazon to the point that it felt reading a public bj lovefest; the author also shares some love by giving iTunes and Netflix handies. It's great for products but he only mentions a few example of how the long tail relates to services. It was a drag to read this book because it was too optimistic and praising and didn't seriously deal with downsides and criticism of the long tail.
The central idea in Chris Anderson's The Long Tail is that the future of business isn't in the mainstream hits that, by virtue of their catering to the lowest common denominator, generate a large volume of business. Rather, the infinite "long tail" of options that cater to niche tastes represent a huge market cumulatively. Improvements in technology - to store, search and deliver - have created new business opportunities by driving demand down this long tail.
Like Nicholas Nassim Taleb's Black Swan and James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds, The Long Tail got people throwing around a new "buzz-phrase" just about every opportunity they could. I must admit to having been a little apprehensive when I first picked up The Long Tail, concerned that like the Wisdom of Crowds, it would belabour its thesis in a full-blown book, when a column in the New Yorker (or Wired magazine in Anderson's case) would suffice. But it turned out to be a fairly engaging read. Each chapter of the book wasn't just a rehashing of a single argument. Sure, Anderson does make some points repeatedly but it doesn't come across as tired and belaboured, in contrast to The Wisdom of Crowds.
The first two chapters introduce the idea of the long tail and why focussing on the mass market and mainstream hits used to make sense. Chapter Three talks about how the idea of driving demand down the tail isn't a new concept; Sears did it with its catalogues in the late 1800s. It's just that we're now driving demand further down the tail than we ever thought possible/viable, where sales are numbered in single digits. Democratization of the tools of production - to let anyone produce a film/record/encyclopedia entry, the development of platforms to aggregate these myriad offerings (Alibris, Rhapsody), powerful search technologies to sieve through these offerings; all these factors have combined to change the economics of doing business. Chapter Nine discusses the world of the "short head" - as exemplified by store shelves that can display only so many products - and the challenges it presents both retailers and consumers, before the last few chapters outline the possibilities of the long tail. Amazon, Alibris, EBay, Rhapsody, Netflix are the usual suspects. Who would have thought of the long tail of kitchen mixers (KitchenAid), or the long tail of Lego, or rice pudding (Rice to Riches). I can't wait to see what other long tails will be tapped next.
Like Nicholas Nassim Taleb's Black Swan and James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds, The Long Tail got people throwing around a new "buzz-phrase" just about every opportunity they could. I must admit to having been a little apprehensive when I first picked up The Long Tail, concerned that like the Wisdom of Crowds, it would belabour its thesis in a full-blown book, when a column in the New Yorker (or Wired magazine in Anderson's case) would suffice. But it turned out to be a fairly engaging read. Each chapter of the book wasn't just a rehashing of a single argument. Sure, Anderson does make some points repeatedly but it doesn't come across as tired and belaboured, in contrast to The Wisdom of Crowds.
The first two chapters introduce the idea of the long tail and why focussing on the mass market and mainstream hits used to make sense. Chapter Three talks about how the idea of driving demand down the tail isn't a new concept; Sears did it with its catalogues in the late 1800s. It's just that we're now driving demand further down the tail than we ever thought possible/viable, where sales are numbered in single digits. Democratization of the tools of production - to let anyone produce a film/record/encyclopedia entry, the development of platforms to aggregate these myriad offerings (Alibris, Rhapsody), powerful search technologies to sieve through these offerings; all these factors have combined to change the economics of doing business. Chapter Nine discusses the world of the "short head" - as exemplified by store shelves that can display only so many products - and the challenges it presents both retailers and consumers, before the last few chapters outline the possibilities of the long tail. Amazon, Alibris, EBay, Rhapsody, Netflix are the usual suspects. Who would have thought of the long tail of kitchen mixers (KitchenAid), or the long tail of Lego, or rice pudding (Rice to Riches). I can't wait to see what other long tails will be tapped next.
informative
fast-paced
Al igual que "Free" es una joya imprescindible acerca de la economía actual. Este tiene la enorme desventaja que está envejeciendo muy rápidamente. Deben leerlo muy pronto. ¡Ah! Lean Wired de vez en cuando.
il libro seguente, Gratis, che riprende ed amplia le tematiche di questo, è decisamente meglio
OK, this book gets down-graded because it is an excellent example of snake oil. Kool Aid.
Let me explain. I'm sure that some people love this book. However, Chris Anderson takes an excellent insight, then extends and extrapolates this insight all out of shape, drawing general conclusions about the whole economy that make absolutely no sense.
First, consider the source. Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. If you've never read Wired, it is a huge media cheerleader for the high technology / IT industries. For example, the articles in Wired display consistent technological triumphalism, like a discussion of the "death of print books," without providing supporting data or a complete picture.
The Wired ethos permeates this book. Example: Anderson says that he can point to "hundreds" of examples of companies that typify the Long Tail approach, but spends the most page space on a select few: Amazon, Rhapsody, Google, etc. Anderson also focuses on music and books for examples, then makes generalizations about all business enterprises that have no economic basis for manufacturing or other non-entertainment industries. The chapter on aggregation seems to have the general message "push the inventory problems down to third party suppliers," yet this kind of strategy can lead to fundamental breakdowns in your ability to deliver unless you can scale like (guess who?) Amazon - especially when you are talking about cars, refrigerators, etc. that are real products.
After 100 pages I could not take this book seriously. It's a shame. The insight of the Long Tail, that you can make a business case for selling a wider diversity of products that aren't "mega-hits," makes a lot of sense. Web technology makes the selling of these products possible in a way that was not possible with brick-and-mortar stores. However, an understanding of how several successful businesses harnessed this idea is not directly generalizable to an entire economy. Making unsupported claims about supposed new "truths" does not make these claims actually true.
Let me explain. I'm sure that some people love this book. However, Chris Anderson takes an excellent insight, then extends and extrapolates this insight all out of shape, drawing general conclusions about the whole economy that make absolutely no sense.
First, consider the source. Chris Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. If you've never read Wired, it is a huge media cheerleader for the high technology / IT industries. For example, the articles in Wired display consistent technological triumphalism, like a discussion of the "death of print books," without providing supporting data or a complete picture.
The Wired ethos permeates this book. Example: Anderson says that he can point to "hundreds" of examples of companies that typify the Long Tail approach, but spends the most page space on a select few: Amazon, Rhapsody, Google, etc. Anderson also focuses on music and books for examples, then makes generalizations about all business enterprises that have no economic basis for manufacturing or other non-entertainment industries. The chapter on aggregation seems to have the general message "push the inventory problems down to third party suppliers," yet this kind of strategy can lead to fundamental breakdowns in your ability to deliver unless you can scale like (guess who?) Amazon - especially when you are talking about cars, refrigerators, etc. that are real products.
After 100 pages I could not take this book seriously. It's a shame. The insight of the Long Tail, that you can make a business case for selling a wider diversity of products that aren't "mega-hits," makes a lot of sense. Web technology makes the selling of these products possible in a way that was not possible with brick-and-mortar stores. However, an understanding of how several successful businesses harnessed this idea is not directly generalizable to an entire economy. Making unsupported claims about supposed new "truths" does not make these claims actually true.
Interesting but a bit out of date - my fault, not the book's
Disclosure: Chris Anderson sent me an Author Review Copy of this book on the condition that I read it and write some kind of bloggy review about it. I would’ve read the book and written this entry anyhow. Mr. Anderson did not make any attempt to influence the kind of review that I would write.
First, I enjoyed the tone of the book. Anderson has a very pleasant writing style, that made me feel at ease, just as when I’m reading one of Stephen Berlin Johnson or Malcolm Gladwell’s books. This is orthogonal to the content, but is still an important consideration for me.
The content. It’s good. Anderson does a very good job of explaining the Long Tail phenomenon – what it is, where it shows up, and why we should care. This is a short book, and so some of the topics aren’t plumbed to their ultimate depths, but for an introductory tome, and one not necessarily intended to be a “How You Can Make Money from the Long Tail” lesson (although there’s some of that), that wouldn’t have been an appropriate tack. In fact, there was more depth of coverage than I’d expected. First, the analysis of how movies, television, and other industries have operated in the past almost guaranteed that there wouldn’t be a Long Tail was interesting – not only have we as consumers been selecting for hits, but so have the industries. I also enjoyed the historical examples of long(ish) tails, notably how catalogue shopping a la Sears was an example of an early long tail industry, just as were supermarkets. Finally, there’s an interesting analysis of why Long Tails arise, and what’s needed for them to work – using real world examples to show why just having a huge pile of undifferentiated junk isn’t good enough.
Anderson’s clearly put a lot of thought into the history, current state, and future of long tail industries, and he’s packaged it in an entertaining and engaging book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in why and how hot new companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix work.
First, I enjoyed the tone of the book. Anderson has a very pleasant writing style, that made me feel at ease, just as when I’m reading one of Stephen Berlin Johnson or Malcolm Gladwell’s books. This is orthogonal to the content, but is still an important consideration for me.
The content. It’s good. Anderson does a very good job of explaining the Long Tail phenomenon – what it is, where it shows up, and why we should care. This is a short book, and so some of the topics aren’t plumbed to their ultimate depths, but for an introductory tome, and one not necessarily intended to be a “How You Can Make Money from the Long Tail” lesson (although there’s some of that), that wouldn’t have been an appropriate tack. In fact, there was more depth of coverage than I’d expected. First, the analysis of how movies, television, and other industries have operated in the past almost guaranteed that there wouldn’t be a Long Tail was interesting – not only have we as consumers been selecting for hits, but so have the industries. I also enjoyed the historical examples of long(ish) tails, notably how catalogue shopping a la Sears was an example of an early long tail industry, just as were supermarkets. Finally, there’s an interesting analysis of why Long Tails arise, and what’s needed for them to work – using real world examples to show why just having a huge pile of undifferentiated junk isn’t good enough.
Anderson’s clearly put a lot of thought into the history, current state, and future of long tail industries, and he’s packaged it in an entertaining and engaging book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in why and how hot new companies like Amazon, Google, and Netflix work.
The world is changing. That’s no news flash. The real question is how is it changing and what do those changes mean for you? One of the changes is a gradual migration away from runaway hits, blockbusters, and phenomena. Instead lower cost to store, lower cost to distribute, and better findability are changing economy so that we can all have the individuality we crave.
Click here to read the full review
Click here to read the full review
While most of the information in this book wasn't new to me, the book has been out for a few years and it's message seems to have become fairly pervasive, I found it thoroughly enjoying to read and full of insights.
The most interesting section, to me, was the chapter on "The Paradise of Choice". Obviously worded to be a jab at [b:The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less|10639|The Paradox of Choice Why More Is Less|Barry Schwartz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254436s/10639.jpg|1157840] (there's also a TED talk by that name that's worth watching), Chris proposes that the reason we have such a difficult time with extensive options isn't because choice is bad, but because we often lack sufficient information to help inform our decisions.
"The paradox of choice turned out to be more about the poverty of help in making that choice than a rejection of plenty."
On the internet, where we have access to endless options (the long tail), we can begin to receive more information about each choice, which liberates us to make an informed decision. That's why things like Amazon's "People who looked at this item also bought" features work so well: they drive people to further choices but provide them with a deeper understanding of those choices.
And the very existence of the Long Tail proves people like to have many options available to them, and they buy more when they get the information to help them sort through those endless options.
The most interesting section, to me, was the chapter on "The Paradise of Choice". Obviously worded to be a jab at [b:The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less|10639|The Paradox of Choice Why More Is Less|Barry Schwartz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254436s/10639.jpg|1157840] (there's also a TED talk by that name that's worth watching), Chris proposes that the reason we have such a difficult time with extensive options isn't because choice is bad, but because we often lack sufficient information to help inform our decisions.
"The paradox of choice turned out to be more about the poverty of help in making that choice than a rejection of plenty."
On the internet, where we have access to endless options (the long tail), we can begin to receive more information about each choice, which liberates us to make an informed decision. That's why things like Amazon's "People who looked at this item also bought" features work so well: they drive people to further choices but provide them with a deeper understanding of those choices.
And the very existence of the Long Tail proves people like to have many options available to them, and they buy more when they get the information to help them sort through those endless options.