McCracken / Anderson Dust Up Over The Long Tail

Oooh, we didn’t know that PSFK fave Grant McCracken didn’t think much of fellow-PSFK fave Chris Anderson’s Long Tail> theory. In fact mcCracken calls the theory a fallacy in this blog post and Anderson has left a rebuke saying that McCracken has never read his book or he’s willfully misrepresenting it. Round 3, and McCracken’s back with a left hook over the idea of millions of niches:

You can see where I might get the impression that you’re committed to a universe of ones, at least in the long term. The terms infinite and unlimited keep cropping up. The terms infinite and unlimited keep cropping up. An “infinite number of niche markets” is a universe of ones…. But even if we ignore “unlimited” and “infinite” as artifacts of the rhetorical heat of the moment, we still have a problem. The word to which you return repeatedly is “millions,” and this is, I think, much too high. Millions of niches is many too many. Even if you are not headed for a “universe of ones,” you are positing a very particulated marketplace. Our spectacularly fecund culture/commerce of ours will never parse that finely.

And then he goes on with new problems with the book! And Anderson responds!

Interesting discussion and debate: This Blog Sits at the: The Long Tail Strikes Back