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The Long Tail
Why The Future Of Business Is Selling Less Of More
by Chris Anderson

The Long Tail reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 70 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.0 out of 10
based on 10 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 2 votes
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rate this book

Expanding on an article he wrote for Wired (where he is the editor-in-chief), Anderson examines the impact of new technologies on popular culture and the business of entertainment.

Hyperion, 256 pages
07/11/2006
$24.95

ISBN: 1401302378

Nonfiction
Business & Professional
Current Events & Politics

What The Critics Said

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Mary Whaley
[An] excellent book. [Aug 2006]
Daily Telegraph Martin Vander Weyer
I strongly recommend this one to anyone who wants to understand how economics is changing.
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Houston Chronicle Fritz Lanham
Challenging, thought-provoking, The Long Tail is one of those business books that, ironically, deserves more than a niche readership.
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Publishers Weekly
Anderson manages to explain a murky trend in clear language, giving entrepreneurs and the rest of us plenty to think about. [22 May 2006]
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Salon Farhad Manjoo
"The Long Tail" feels surprisingly free of new insight; it doesn't say a great deal more than what Anderson offered in his breakthrough Wired article.
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The Economist
One weakness of this otherwise excellent book is that it tries to apply the theory of the long tail to fields far beyond entertainment and e-commerce.
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The New York Times Lorne Manly
Mr. Anderson’s thesis suffers at times from overextending itself... But like “The Tipping Point,” Mr. Anderson’s book does an excellent job of spotting trends and fitting them into an easily accessible theoretical framework that helps explain the changing culture around us.
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The New Yorker John Cassidy
All this is snappily argued and thought-provoking, if not quite as original as Anderson’s publishers would have us believe.
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Wall Street Journal Steven Zeitchik
Mr. Anderson is prone to making arguments that assert the fact of a long tail rather than show its ultimate effects.
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Slate Tim Wu
Anderson's book, unlike his original Wired article, threatens to turn a great theory of inventory economics into a bad theory of life and the universe.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this book is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jim H gave it an8:
Two things about the critical spectrum here: -the long tail theory is not all that revolutionary. In fact, you could argue that the long tail is really nothing more than the long tail of all recorded human history. -On the other hand,specific to our times and our culture, the long tail should not be underestimated or underappreciated (as Anderson's concluding chapters are, by some critics above). All things told, this is a well thought out, important book.

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