The future’s so bright, I have to wear blinders

In interesting technology/business news today, Yahoo announced that it plans to increase to 100 megabytes the amount of free e-mail storage it offers to its consumers. This comes at a time of great strategic advances by Yahoo in the face of competition. From Yesterday’s meeting with Wall Street analysts:

And throughout the daylong meeting, set a self-assured Yahoo CEO Terry Semel tone by insisting the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company feeds on competitive threats.

Without mentioning names, Semel made veiled references to longtime rivals Microsoft and AOL, as well as “one or two” upcoming companies.

After acknowledging that these companies have become major players in some Internet segments, Semel cautioned Yahoo’s foes.

“My advice is to beware,” Semel said. “All we want to do is win. It’s the only thing that excites us.”

Define winning. Is it offering extra e-mail storage? Is it having the most consumers? I know… perhaps it’s STEALING THE MOST MONEY FROM IT’S CONSUMERS! I’ve said “consumer” throughout this post because Yahoo does not treat people as customers. If it did, then it wouldn’t have stolen $14.85 from me. If it did, it would have returned more than $4.95 when I proved that it stole from me. If it did, its consumers wouldn’t have to call three times to have only one-third of the heist returned.

Focusing on the main point that Yahoo had to offer, this is the fact that should be highlighted:

The change, which will become effective this summer, is being made six weeks after Google unveiled an e-mail service that will offer each account 1,000 megabytes of free storage.

Now consider this statement:

“We will continue to lead and not follow,” said Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo’s chief operating officer. “We know where the Internet is going.”

I love that new definition of leading. Provide 10% of your competitor’s offer six weeks later and the industry will cower. “Bow before us, oh ye gods of competition, we are leaders! We are Yahoo!”