you may have read Google’s paper on predicting the present? the web has given the invisible hand of the market an opposable thumb, if you will, by allow the market to more clearly articulate its desires.
beforehand, it was all too common for a few people to be given the responsibility of deciding what “the masses” want. often to miserable results.
in a recollection of the music industry in the 1960s, Frank Zappa credits the older generation for allowing the market to decide what music was cool. Zappa then ridicules the young, supposedly hip music executives who think they know what the kids want – but never think to just ask them.