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The Sometimes Fallacy of The Long Tail

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sometimes-the-snake's-head-is-what-matters dept.

There's been a lot of talk (maybe too much talk, to paraphrase Bono) about The Long Tail and how it changes everything about what people consume, how hits are made, what people want to hear, how everything big is small again -- but people have taken that perhaps too far as Lee Gomes contends in a recent blog post about hits. Lee's piece is well thought-out, and I think raises a very valid point that whereas there is value in the Long Tail idea, sometimes people take it too far and that "Hits" still count for a lot. His earlier piece is a more direct critique of The Long Tail and worth reading as well; we covered that piece about the Long Tail a couple weeks back.

10 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Bono by mnemonic_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was pro Bono, until he broke up with Cher.

    1. Re:Bono by FlyByPC · · Score: 2, Funny

      >I was pro Bono, until he broke up with Cher.
      Wrong Bono, Sonny.

      --
      Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    2. Re:Bono by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      My dog loves Bono too. He says it doesn't matter if the tail is long or short, it's how you wag
      it that counts. What's that Gnasher?

      Woof!

    3. Re:Bono by bitt3n · · Score: 2, Funny
      I was pro Bono, until he broke up with Cher.

      I was pro bono until I got sucked into the lucrative practice of defending drug smugglers.

      --
      how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
  2. Talk about IRONY by FlyByPC · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The Long Tail" is itself a bestseller?
    ...so exactly what are we to learn from that -- does that prove it right, or wrong?

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    1. Re:Talk about IRONY by dpilot · · Score: 2, Funny

      But when I see the "Long Tail" in print, if I read it too fast I misread, "Long Trail Ale" and wonder where the "Ale" went.

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  3. You need the whole tail... by sweetnjguy29 · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you want to stretch the analogy to its logical limit, it shows that a business needs a solid base of popular sales and a ever expanding long tail of indie, cult, and oldie stuff that serve as loss leaders and marginal profit makers. You can have a successful business with a well connected short tail, but a fabulous business needs a longer tail. If the end falls off, you can still be ok! But if you loose the base of the tail, well...all you have is a big ass :-)

  4. So what does this imply to the blogosphere? by bunions · · Score: 4, Funny

    If folksonomies aren't tagged by the technorati, who or what will linkroll the mashups? The impact on the remixability of emergent systems will likely be severe.

    --
    there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
  5. You believe Wikipedia!? by woodsrunner · · Score: 4, Funny

    d00d, you'r gonna believe Wikipedia when they flub such common knowledge? Bono broke up with Cher and started the U2's a play on his previous hit single "I've got You Babe". He then went on to be a Senator to represent Mickey Mouse. He died in a ski accident and currently tours with the U2's and is involved in trying to stop poverty and stuff like that. Jees! Keep up with what's goin on, eh!

  6. U2's from America? by woodsrunner · · Score: 2, Funny

    According to Casey Kasem, the U2's "are from england and who gives a $hit!"