] But where you have unlimited shelf space, it's an ] infinite sum game. The billions of crappy web pages about ] whatever are not a problem in the way that billions of ] crappy CDs on the Tower Records shelves would be. ] Inventory is "non-rivalrous" and the ratio of good to bad ] is simply a signal-to-noise problem, solvable with ] information tools. ] ] Which is to say it's not much of a problem at all. You ] just need better filters, such as recommendations and ] good search engines. The fact that screens 10 and beyond ] of your Google search results are unhelpful doesn't ] matters because screens 1-3 are so useful. The noise is ] still out there, but Google allows you to effectively ] ignore it. Filters rule! ] ] The following is this expressed graphically. As you go ] down the Long Tail the signal-to-noise ratio gets worse. ] Thus the only way you can maintain a consistently good ] enough signal to find what you want is if your filters ] get increasingly powerful. The Long Tail: Is the Long Tail full of crap? |