Consumers could pay for Google's power

[Commentary] At first glance, Google's latest plan for global domination sounds very cool. Everyone's favorite pedal-to-the-metal, innovate-or-die tech company is throwing its Mensa-level brainpower behind the development of a computer operating system to rival Microsoft's Windows. But that's why you want to be worried. "They have so much market power, you've got to be concerned that they'll use that power in a way others can't compete with," said Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley antitrust lawyer best known for spearheading opposition to Microsoft Corp.'s once-market-dominating practices. Lazarus gets nervous whenever a big company controls hefty portions of any particular market, even when its success rests largely on building better mousetraps. And he gets extra nervous whenever a company controls huge volumes of customer data, which it can leverage for commercial gain without a second thought about people's privacy. And I get extra, extra nervous when I think about how competition can be stifled because a company is so dominant, it enjoys market power that not only makes it hard for rivals to put up a fight but also prevents fresh-faced upstarts from gaining a toehold.