The abundance of stuff—both online and offline—means that every conceivable niche is available to everyone. Search engines are niche machines that are increasingly sophisticated at directing attention to these fine grained interests.
Have these obscure interests always existed or does the search engine cause us to grind our attention finer? What or who are we ingratiating?
From a passing sentence in My Obsession by William Gibson on Wired.
See also:
- Maybe niche interests is a hunt for rarity like CryptoPunks are the Star Wars action figures of the future
- Identity is a powerful motivator for behaviors and “I’m the kind of person that wears rare vintage watches”