Google's size puts it in the searchlight

[Commentary] Does the nature of Internet searching itself have an anti-competitive effect on other markets? More popular sites figure higher in search results, but ranking high also generates more traffic. So it is possible that Google -- because of the good service it provides and with no ill intent -- is making other markets more winner-takes-all and less competitive. The overarching issue is: does the gatekeeping role of web search give it a public utility-like role? That is the difficult question that Joaquín Almunia, the new EU competition commissioner, must help to answer.