Chris Anderson's The Long Tail is an interesting reading to understand Web 2.0 from the perspective of the Long Tail phenomenon. Though I've heard his talk in the past, it was great to finally read his book and get a deeper understanding of the concept of the Long Tail. I'll discuss some of the ideas in the book that I found particularly interesting.

First, the Long Tail model creates probabilistic systems. I believe this is a key to understanding Long Tail systems. One implication is that one cannot rely on such a system to provide a definitive answer. One can, however, rely on the collective accuracy of answers that are provided. Wikipedia is a prime example. Developed by the Long Tail of professional and amateur writers, Wikipedia may not be able to provide as definitive an answer as traditional encyclopedias on a single topic. Collectively, however, Wikipedia provides broader coverage of topics as well as superior overall quality. And as with other probabilistic systems, I believe it is fair to say that Wikipedia is more useful than traditional encyclopedias in most cases.

Another idea I found interesting is the observation that the Head economy is driven by money, while the Tail economy is driven by other factors, such as reputation. Typically the Head is comprised of professionals while the Tail is comprised of amateurs. This is particularly apparent in the world of blogging, where selected bloggers are successful in monetizing on their effort while the rest are driven by passion and reputation. This is an interesting characteristic of the Long Tail.

Another important notion to understand the Long Tail is that as the collective size of the Tail increases, aggregators become more important to sort out vast amount of information. Google, Amazon.com, eBay, and iTunes are such examples. Some aggregators have sophisticated mechanisms, such as Netflix’s recommendation system, to expose Tail information to larger audience. These mechanisms are designed to combat the paradox of choice by providing relevant information to the audience that assists them with their decision making.

There are many other interesting ideas that are presented in the book, such as the implication of the Long Tail on both business and cultural diversity, and I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it yet.