"The overarching issue is: does the gatekeeping role of web search give it a public utility-like role? That is the difficult question that Mr Almunia must help to answer."
Several things lately have made me come back to the idea of the web as a city, one that started out as a medieval city of small houses close together--smaller communities that grew and merged organically into a densely populated and crowded urban space, where getting anywhere was difficult and finding things tricky and uncertain.
Google is like Baron Haussmann, who cut boulevards through the structure of Paris bringing ease of movement as well as water and sewer service, to the city.
As the FT article points out, Google is like a utility (and like a gatekeeper (another medieval urban image)). Its roles actually reshape the information space. So, yes, it is a utility.
