The call for definitions produced a tremendous showing from a lot of very smart readers, both in comments and emails. At this rate I'll have you all writing the entire book for me in true Stone Soup/Open Source fashion. Thanks in advance!
Quite of few of you were able (easily, by the looks of it) to improve upon my own efforts at defining The Long Tail. For what it's worth, my definition D--"The Long Tail is about the economics of abundance—what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone"--got the most votes, although I wouldn't call it a mandate by any means.
I'm not quite ready to pick a winner yet (or more likely remix good bits into an all-star mashup) but I can at least offer a finalist list. Ideally, the three key elements of the Long Tail that a good definition should explain are: 1) the shift from hits to niches; 2) the economics of abundance (infinite shelf-space effect); 3) the aggregation of many small markets to make a big one.
These are the ones the are closest so far (several were articulated by more than one person; in those cases I've usually picked the shortest one; I've also tweaked a word or two):
Best Definitions:
- "The Long Tail is the realization that the sum of many small markets is worth as much, if not more, than a few large markets." --Jason Foster
- “The Long Tail is what you get when the obscure becomes ubiquitous.”-- Eric Akawie
- “The Long Tail is the 80% of stuff that didn't used to be worth selling.”--Greg
- "The Long Tail is the story of how products that were once considered fringe, underground or independent now collectively make up a market that rivals the bestsellers and blockbusters." --Bob Baker
Best Slogans:
- “Trickle-up economics!”—Joshua Wood
- “The end of the 80/20 Rule!”—Eric Etheridge
- “Everything, all the time!”—Jim Treacher (channeling Don Henley)
Best Puns:
I'm the third one from the left. You can tell by the dimples. Also the dimples in the face.
Posted by: Jim Treacher | January 10, 2005 at 08:34 AM
I vote for number one (enough small markets make a big market). I like the fact that it doesn't reference sellable goods, but instead mentions markets. In my mind the long tail extends well beyond just products.
Posted by: Noah Brier | January 10, 2005 at 08:52 AM
I use to work at Amazon.com on the personalization features that fuel the long tail. Here's how I described the long tail to a marketing guy who didn't get it (and thought we should focus more on bestsellers): "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday."
We are building a new long tail of the internet's aspirations at http://www.43things.com
Let me know what you think.
Posted by: Josh Petersen | January 10, 2005 at 08:25 PM
Just put up an initial Wikipedia article called "The Long Tail"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail
It borrows from Bob Bakers definition.
Posted by: Stephen Balbach | January 11, 2005 at 12:02 AM
Reading your blog I am reminded of the 1983 G. Harry Stine (under the pen name Lee Correy) SF novel Manna. While it's still in print (Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879978961/qid=1105466355/sr=1-21/ref=sr_1_21/102-5364052-8103306?v=glance&s=books, no referrer code), the only other useful web mention I found of it was a three year old blog entry of mine (http://www.billsaysthis.com/blog/blogarch.phtml?archdate=2001_12_09_blog_archive.phtml#7781381). Stine died in 1997 so no surprise he doesn't have a personal site, but I recommend the book highly.
Posted by: BillSaysThis | January 11, 2005 at 10:11 AM
There is never a final definition. Concepts compete. The competition changes the words.
Posted by: David Locke | January 15, 2005 at 07:30 PM
I am beginning to call it the End of Shelf life....
Posted by: James Governor | February 01, 2005 at 12:27 PM
To me, the long tail where niche product (or whatever) lives...as opposed to a merely customized or personalized mass market product. Some fuss has been made of the idea of mass customization over the past few years, but using technology to serve niche needs goes beyond customization.
Posted by: Slippery Pete | February 04, 2005 at 07:39 AM
The Problem of finding a cocktail party definition to The Long Tail is the term you are trying to define in the first place.
1)The Long Tail phenomenon, as you so brilliantly articulate it in your Wired piece, is not a noun, not a description of a static thing or event, but rather a process. The long tail itself is merely a definition, or rather a description of the part of a graph depicting the mathematical formulation of the laws of scarcity – or of Pareto’s principle. But what you are describing in your writing is the process, enabled by a new technology, of accessing that long tail in a way not possible before. By referring to it as merely The Long Tail, you are grasping for that Editor’s attempt to Headline. And rightly so. We need a quick way to refer to the 5 pages you outlines in WIRED, and certainly we need a title for your much anticipated book. But the headline needs to have a VERB added to it. Because it’s a process, not a principle like the power curve.
So, pick your verb: my favorite is, "Mining". Mining the Long Tail. I like the imagery. One mines for diamonds, treasures, data...etc..
But other verbs may do — accessing, reaching, spotlighting, ..
If you notice in the google slide you posted, it says Serving the Long Tail. The verb was necessary. It is necessary in defining your concept of it as well.
Once you’ve added that verb, a definition becomes much easier, and many of the ones already in your list work fine. For example, Mining the Long Tail is the process by which,____ and then fill in the rest of the definitions on your finalist list.
Mining The Long Tail is the process by which,
-- the sum of many small markets is worth as much, if not more, than a few large markets." --Jason Foster
-- the obscure becomes ubiquitous.”-- Eric Akawie
-- the 80% of stuff that didn't used to be worth selling.”--Greg
-- products that were once considered fringe, underground or independent now collectively make up a market share that rivals the bestsellers and blockbusters." --Bob Baker
My own submission for the new title: Mining the Long Tail is the process, via a new technology, of transforming the physical limitations of current selling and distribution systems so that very small niche products, that previously fell into the bottom 80% of the power distribution curve, can now profitably find their market.
Then, depending on which cocktail party it is, If the person at the cocktail party asks “what is the power distribution curve?”, you can explain that. And that would be the classic definition of the long tail, or Pareto’s principle.
2) The Long Tail itself, even as it is defined by Pareto, is not a fixed event. The graph depicting the 20/80 power law is merely a picture of a distribution in a given point in time. But the elements that make up the curve are never the same at any moment. Even before the internet and digital technology, obscure authors could suddenly find a better agent, big name artists could suddenly fall out of favor, trends and natural events changed demand, and hoola hoops or face masks suddenly went from one end of the curve to the other overnight. The new technology is changing the dynamics, momentum, size of that process and as you pointed out, possibly the actual ratio of the power law itself. But a dynamic process is what you’re defining, not a fixed graph. Thus the verb in your title is essential from this perspective as well.
Posted by: Helen Hockney | February 14, 2005 at 07:28 AM
I've been using longtail in targeting keywords for my niche. great post.
thanks,
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