Friday, June 24, 2005

Long Tail in information space

Google: Long Tail advertisers
eBay: Long Tail hard goods
CapitalOne: Long Tail customers

Treat individuals as individuals, mass customization.

Precursors to long tail:
Sears Catalog
800 number
Supermarket shelves

But then you're faced with "The Tyranny of Choice" --which leads to buyer's remorse and even not buying things. Chris used a funny example about jam selections. If I have 3 choices, I select one and am happy. If I have 30 choices, I realize I have too many choices and then I feel oppressed to pick the right one.

In Amazon-land, I could have reviews, strong placement, noted "if you like this, you may like that..." and you'd pick the jam of "50 million jam eaters can't be wrong."

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