Free The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

request by ordering it for them online. Likewise for the online side of Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and innumerable other retailers: The unlimited shelf space of the Web retail allows them to offer their customers more variety and convenience, cementing brand loyalty with existing customers and extending it to new ones who may or may not be near a physical store.
    LONG TAILS EVERYWHERE

    From purely virtual retailers such as eBay to the online side of traditional retailing, the virtues of unlimited shelf space, abundant information, and smart ways to find what you want—Bezos’s original vision—have proven every bit as compelling as he thought. And as a result, there are now Long Tail markets practically everywhere you look.
    Just as Google is finding ways to tap the Long Tail of advertising, Microsoft is extending the Tail of video games into small and cheap games that you can download on its Xbox Live network. Open-source software projects such as Linux and Firefox are the Long Tail of programming talent, while offshoring taps the Long Tail of labor. Meanwhile, the Internet has enabled the longest, er, tail of pornography for every possible taste and kink.
    More esoteric examples include the proliferation of microbrews as the “Long Tail of beer” (indeed, Anheuser-Busch has created a division called “Long Tail Libations” to sell niche drinks), the growth of customized T-shirts, shoes, and other clothing as the “Long Tail of fashion,” and the growth of online universities as the “Long Tail of education.”
    Finally, to give an idea of how broadly the theory has been applied, consider this analysis of the “Long Tail of national security” by John Robb, a military analyst who runs the Global Guerrillas Web site:
Traditionally, warfare (the ability to change society through violence) has been limited to nation-states, except in rare cases. States had a monopoly on violence. The result was a limited, truncated distribution of violence. That monopoly is on the skids due to three trends:

A democratization of the tools of warfare. Niche producers (for example: gangs) are made possible by the dislocation of globalization. All it takes to participate is a few men, some boxcutters, and a plane (as an example of simple tools combined with leverage from ubiquitous economic infrastructure).
An amplification of the damage caused by niche producers of warfare. The magic of global guerrilla systems disruption which turns inexpensive attacks into major economic and social events.
The acceleration of word of mouth. New groups can more easily find/train recruits, convey their message to a wide audience, and find/coordinate their activities with other groups (allies).

The result: a Long Tail has developed. New niche producers of violence have flourished. Demand for the results these niche suppliers can produce has also radically increased. Big concepts (such as a struggle between Islam and the U.S.), not championed by states, have supercharged niche suppliers like al Qaeda and its clones.

THE THREE FORCES OF THE LONG TAIL

    MAKE IT, GET IT OUT THERE, AND HELP ME FIND IT

    The theory of the Long Tail can be boiled down to this: Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a huge number of niches in the tail. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.
    But that’s not enough. Demand must follow this new supply. Otherwise, the Tail will wither. Because the Tail is measured not just in available variety but in the people who gravitate toward it, the true shape of demand is revealed only when consumers are offered infinite choice. It is the aggregate sales, use, or other participation of all those people in the newly available niches that turns the