“People should think about e-mail as something where they are archiving their lives.”
-Yahoo! co-founder David Filo.

Yahoo’s announcement that they will offer unlimited disk space for email accounts plays right into the hands of a new breed of pack rat: the email server storage hog.

I’m not sure if cluttering up my inbox with one line replies, semi-interesting listserv messages, or even ongoing chains trying to figure out what to get my dad for his birthday qualifies as archiving my life. An archive implies something worth going back to later, or at least something that you suspect you might want to keep around.

I’m trying to envision a future sitting around with the wife, going through our old emails and remembering the glory days: “Oh remember this, honey, when we tried to go out to dinner with Stephen and his friends, but we couldn’t find a date that worked for everyone? Those were the days.” Nope, I just don’t see it. But enjoy your extra disk space, Yahoozers.

It is a noble goal that brings these great American corporate giants (News. Corp., NBC, AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!) together: “for the first time, consumers will get what they want – professional produced video delivered on the sites where they live.”

Deconstructing the hyperbole and lack of consumer insight displayed here could take pages. The real question is, can they make it happen? Five corporations that have been rivals for years, fighting hand to hand for the same ad dollars, the same consumer eyeballs are now working together. None have shown the slightest aptitude for partnership in the past (they are all legendary for their internal in-fighting); nor is there any good reason to believe they will be successful now.

Not even for their real, whispered mission: Google must die.

Not exactly a mission to build a business case on is it?

Nor can it sustain them through the negotiation-filled months ahead. The fear of Google can’t keep the various corporate self-interests at bay as they struggle to turn these press releases into real online consumer experiences and ad dollars.

A question as seemingly simple as “who gets what video first?” will determine which partner is most or least successful. Nor is the answer “everyone gets everything at once” satisfactory. In that route lies a complete dilution of value of these assets for every partner and a valueless partnership.

Then there is the advertising model with all that money to muddle through. It comes down to who sells what, how and what happens when the inventory runs out or goes soft.

It looks like some pretty tough talk ahead. All the time drawing high priced resources away from each partner’s more singular concerns: falling stock prices, re-building brand image, and other competitors.

Critically, there is no Lincoln in this story. No individual with the vision and determination to use each partner’s talents and toss the rest away. Here we see hyperbole and a great deal of misplaced energy; a true team of rivals. The folks at Google couldn’t be happier.

Exactly how much will the NCAA Tournament affect the work place? We could do a bracket pool, but the outplacement consulting firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas seems to have already done the math: $1.2 billion in lost work.

I’m sure their algorithm is as complicated as Google’s. But I wonder if it has taken into consideration a few additional possibilities.

With the sportsline.com web-cast of first round games on Thursday and Friday afternoon, new numbers come into play. There is, of course, the impact of the lost productivity of the folks watching those games, and of those who are trying to get work done with the folks watching games. That’s a given. What about the impact of all those watching on the productivity of the Internet?

This is the first time this much live video has been streamed to this many people (LIVE) in the history of the Internet. I’m not talking a crash, maybe just a traffic jam - think overturned tracker trailer at rush hour. Then again, maybe a CRASH.

How retro would that be? A reality check to remind us that whether we are Web 2.0 or Web 3.0, there is still a limit.

No, can’t happen. Anyway I’ve got brackets to fill out.

I’m not sure if it matters anymore, but we’re doing it again. With “Geico’s Cavemen May Get Own TV Series,” some likable if kinda surly citizens get their chance to experience society’s triumphs and failures. I’ll give it a watch. Better than watching these cavemen for half an hour.