While I agree with SEOBook that Demand Media and their ilk are the story of the year in large scale content production and optimization, I disagree that this necessarily ushers in a new generation of low quality content in the SERPS.
Long tail search results have always been about "good enough" content as opposed to superior content. Why? Because there isn't enough volume to support superior content production at the tail.
As a searcher, I don't care if I'm looking at good enough search results / content from a niche player, or from a big company like Demand Media.
And if Demand has found an efficient way to own a big chunk of the previously fragmented long tail of search, hurray for them.
You could almost make the case that one company with economies of scale is MORE likely to be able to afford to produce quality content for low volume queries than the thousands of displaced niche publishers.
Long tail search results have always been about "good enough" content as opposed to superior content. Why? Because there isn't enough volume to support superior content production at the tail.
As a searcher, I don't care if I'm looking at good enough search results / content from a niche player, or from a big company like Demand Media.
And if Demand has found an efficient way to own a big chunk of the previously fragmented long tail of search, hurray for them.
You could almost make the case that one company with economies of scale is MORE likely to be able to afford to produce quality content for low volume queries than the thousands of displaced niche publishers.