The Long Tail

I just read a couple of interesting posts by Chris Anderson of Wired at his The Long Tail blog. For those of you who don't know, his Long Tail theory is about the power of niche segments ("the Tail") that collectively form a large market.

In his post Recommendations Rule!, Chris writes about how recommendations are important in finding products in the Tail, and how blogs are becoming important sources of recommendations:

Blogs are shaping up to be an equally powerful source of influential recommendations. There are independent enthusiast sites such as PVRblog and Horticultural (an organic gardening blog), commercial blogs such as Gizmodo and Joystiq, and then the random recommendations of whichever blogger you happen to read for any reason (there does seem to be a natural connection between mavens, who know a lot and like to share their knowledge, and blogging). What they may lack in polish and scope, they more than make up in credibility: their readers know that there is a real person there that they can trust.

I agree. There's clearly a Long Tail developing in blogs - where there are a few large blogs like Gizmodo, many maven blogs like PVRblog, and then millions of small blogs in the Tail that are read mostly by friends & family and loyal followers. And the level of readers' trust grows the further you go out the Tail.

Chris writes further that he doesn't believe that friends are the best source of recommendations, specifically as it relates to social software ("Why Social Software Makes for Poor Recommendations"):

The problem with social software as a recommendation network has its roots in the problem of social software itself. "Friend" is a pretty blunt instrument when it comes to describing relationships, especially in matters of taste. The sad reality is that most of my friends have rotten taste in music (I don't hold it against them), while the music recommendations I actually follow are mostly from people I've never met, be they Rhapsody editors or MP3 blogs. Same for virtually every other narrow category where I need advice; odds are that the real subject matter experts aren't anyone I know.

I don't agree with him entirely here. True, some of my friends have different tastes than me and they're definitely not domain experts. But there are a great many that do share my tastes - in food, music, films, and books - and we give each other tips all the time. Regardless Chris misses a point, which is that even if I do not share the same tastes as a friend, I am still aware of his tastes. So as a good friend, I will pass along recommendations that I hear from other like-minded people (perhaps from an orthogonal group.)

I think there's a great opportunity for friends to write a group blog in which they share product recommendations - not only of items each person likes but also things they know other group members will want. The more product links they post and buy collectively through their blog, the more money they can make for themselves or for charity.