The Long Tail/Anderson 107-110

108 The rise of the search engine as the economic force of Silicon Valley is simply a reflection of the value that we now recognize in the measurement and analysis of the actions of millions of individuals.

The catch-all phrase for recommendations and all the other tools that help you find quality in the Long Tail is filters.

109 In a world of infinite choice, context—not content is king.

110 …we help you find great movies that you’ll really like.

Hastings believes that recommendations and other filters are one of the Netflix’s most important advantages, especially for non-blockbusters. Recommendations have all the demand-generation power of advertising, but at virtually no cost.

Netflix recommendations level the playing field, offering free marketing for films that can’t otherwise afford it, and thus spreading demand more evenly between hits and niches.