bootstrapping.net

The not so long tail
It appears that the long tail of Amazonisn’t as long as first estimated. Only 25-30% of the revenue comes from books not available in physical stores - and not the 57% mentioned in Chris Anderson’s first wired article.
That is one of the first interesting post on his new weblog following the long tail from article to book - and eventually into a massive hype meme (the picture of the long tail is so strong and simple - it reasonates with people on a deep level). So expect lot’s of companies exploring the long tail - most of them without too much luck since their business model wan’t allow them to have decent enough margins from the tail.

Jon Udell: The network is the blog. Another must read from Jon Udell.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft:“Blogging is huge,” he said. “It brings together the three biggest Internet trends: communicating, sharing and socializing. It started with e-mail and instant messaging and music sharing, and it’s getting bigger each day.”

The future:
One of the largest corporations in the world launches a new product (in this instance Microsoft launching a blogging service) and one if it’s most highly visible employees openly critizes the product

PressThink: Mark Glaser: The Media Company I Want to Work For– Not Someday, But Now
“I am usually a patient person, but not now. I am tired of waiting for media companies to change and figure out the way that the business is shifting right beneath their short-sighted eyes. When are they going to understand that their readers are more important than their stockholders? When are they going to understand their readers at all? When are they going to “get” the Internet, true interactivity, citizen journalism, blogging and the communities of thought that are rising up?”

21C3, The Usual Suspects December 27th to 29th 2004, Berlin. The European Hacker Conference.

Word of the year 2004: Blog