As Google’s Atmosphere conference was winding down on Monday afternoon, I sat in the press box and ruminated on the vague discomfort that had been nagging me since lunch. Something was bothering me about the way the CIOs that Google had gathered to give testimonials were talking about “going Google,” but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.Then suddenly, the image of Phil Hartman popped into my head, and I had my answer.

I imagined that I was a CIO who was out hiking on some glacier in 2001, and I fell in and was frozen there, only to thaw out ten years later (thanks, global warming!). My...