I have not read Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail. As editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, Anderson is exposed to new ideas all the time and his own thinking influences a lot of people.

From what I’ve heard about the book, his message is that specialized niches will continue to proliferate based on our technology to reach targeted audiences. Think cable TV, blogs, and buying online almost anything you care to buy.

A Wall Street Journal article from April 2007 reports on a Frenchman’s hobby for tracking commercial and military airplanes. Alexandre Avrane has a database that provides information on 65,000 aircraft, from which airline operates it, to the specific model and number of years in use.  He documents the lineage of each plane and captures it on film when possible, thanks to a world-wide community of like-minded enthusiasts. They provide tips on sightings of noteworthy planes, as well as those that have come back into circulation after being retired from one airline and returning to service with another.

What’s really intriguing is that this hobby has become a business–because the market demanded it. Avrane has 1,600 subscribers to his database, each paying from $50 to $1,600, based on the amount of information that is accessible. Some are fans, like Avrane, and others are companies leasing planes, assessing the safety of a particular aircraft.

I think niches are here to stay, serving specific audiences with sometimes very quirky interests.