
Online shopping and the Harry Potter effect - peter123
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026873.300-online-shopping-and-the-harry-potter-effect.html?full=true
======
d0mine
Topic: Internet and Fat Long Tail

Message: The winner takes it all

Data: Better connectivity between people makes big titles even bigger and
unpopular one more unpopular.

 _a small preference for a particular object can, in a highly connected
community, rapidly amplify and spread its appeal._ </quote>

Possible explanations:

1\. _Ultimately, he thinks, our love of the blockbuster might just reflect
that we humans are constantly looking out for a place to go - one where others
are too. "A culture is a set of people who share beliefs, ideas and
artefacts," says Watts. "Blockbusters are part of that - they make us feel we
belong to something."_ </quote>

2\. _It is this sort of software_ [recommendation engines] _that paradoxically
promotes the sales of blockbusters and is responsible for homogenising choice
online_ ... _To make useful recommendations, most collaborative filters must
make guesses based on previous sales and ratings. But obscure products do not
have much in the way of sales or ratings to go on, so the filters tend to
point us towards more mainstream offerings_ </quote>

