Long, lonely tail

I recognize the incongruity of my linking to A-lister Nick Carr's entry about the dwindling long tail:

Chris Anderson's "long tail" remains an elegant and instructive theory, but it already feels dated, a description of the web as we once imagined it to be rather than as it is. The long tail is still there, of course, but far from wagging the web-dog, it's taken on the look of a vestigial organ. Chop it off, and most people would hardly notice the difference. On the web as off it, things gravitate toward large objects. The center holds.

This reminds of the geospatial/geoweb community's fascination with "top 25" lists and preference for popular blogs over idiosyncratic blogs.