Navigating the Long Tail September
2007

<ul><li>Human Factors Engineer, LexisNexis </li></ul><ul><li>Information
Architect, Razorfish Germany (2003) </li></ul><ul><li>LIS Degree from Rutgers University </li></ul><ul><li>Designing Web Navigation </li></ul><ul><li>(O‘Reilly, Aug 2007) </li></ul>James Kalbach

P O P U L
A R I T Y PRODUCTS Head = Hits Long Tail = Niche Markets

<ul><li>The hits now compete with
an infinite number of niche markets, of any size . </li></ul><ul><li>Increasingly, the mass market is turning into a mass of niches. </li></ul>“ ” “ ”

You can't have everything, where
would you put it? (Steven Wright) “ ”

<ul><li>Metadata </li></ul>BUT, the cost of
adding more information is noise Online, there is virtually no cost to add more No shelf space No manufacturing costs No distribution costs The solution to the overabundance of information is more information (David Weinberger) “ ”

<ul><li>Navigation Layer </li></ul>

<ul><li>1. User-Generated Metadata </li></ul><ul><li>Pros </li></ul><ul><li>Low
maintenance </li></ul><ul><li>Self-generating organization </li></ul><ul><li>Low costs to get started </li></ul><ul><li>OK for an answer </li></ul><ul><li>Cons </li></ul><ul><li>Lacks comprehensiveness </li></ul><ul><li>Requires incubation time </li></ul><ul><li>Navigating other's tags difficult </li></ul><ul><li>Example: </li></ul><ul><li>Tagging </li></ul>

<ul><li>2. Technically Generated Metadata </li></ul><ul><li>Pros
</li></ul><ul><li>Scales up </li></ul><ul><li>Quick, timely </li></ul><ul><li>Inexpensive to run </li></ul><ul><li>Cons </li></ul><ul><li>Can be inaccurate </li></ul><ul><li>Performance intensive </li></ul><ul><li>High cost to enter </li></ul>Examples: Entity Extraction Sentiment Analysis

<ul><li>3. Owner-Created Metadata </li></ul><ul><li>Pros </li></ul><ul><li>Consistent
terms </li></ul><ul><li>Comprehensive </li></ul><ul><li>Cons </li></ul><ul><li>Time intensive to create </li></ul><ul><li>Maintenance </li></ul><ul><li>Inflexible, rigid </li></ul><ul><li>Example: </li></ul><ul><li>Controlled Vocabulary </li></ul>

<ul><li>Classification: 99% Bad? </li></ul>Ontological classification
works well in some places, of course…So what you want to know, when thinking about how to organize anything, is whether that kind of classification is a good strategy. “ ” Clay Shirky “ Ontology is Overrated”

<ul><li>Social Structure </li></ul>

<ul><li>Technical Structure </li></ul>

<ul><li>Adding Structure </li></ul>

<ul><li>Navigation Tools </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Issues </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Scalability </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Speed
</li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Ease of Use </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Representation </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Integrating navigation and search </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Click Search </li></ul></ul>

<ul><li>One Size Doesn’t Fit All
</li></ul>

<ul><li>Information Structures </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Content inventory will
become domain analysis </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Facets </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Frequency </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Longevity </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Quantity </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Linking </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Authority </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Genres </li></ul></ul>

<ul><li>Conclusions </li></ul>The cost of adding
more information is noise Different sources of metadata and structures Top-down categorization is a viable strategy in niches Niche markets are defined by the categories you create Provide tools to navigate and make sense of information Any and all means of navigation and structure are needed Look at inherent patterns of information in a domain

Thank You [email_address]