Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine has started a blog to accompany a book he is writing, The Long Tail. He wrote an article with the same title and that really caught the imagination of the blogsphere. Today he talks about the role of mavens or influencers and how the impact the sale of products, or popularity of products.

All of them represent an essential element in realizing the potential of the Long Tail: providing recommendations to help others venture confidently down the Tail into what would otherwise be a bewildering array of choices. But as the trend towards even more abundance accelerates, who will be these new guides?

Virginia Postrel calls it mediated shopping. He goes into a great detail about the impact of this on the future of shopping. What experts like Anderson and Postrel don’t factor in is the fact that it is broadband that makes all this possible. No broadband, means a sucky blog experience and no constantly updated feeds. Or where do you find the swarms who share your passion for say, TJ Rehmi. In the end it is the availability of the databases chock-full of information anytime, over a zippy internet makes the long tail possible. (Read: Recommendations Rule!)