The proposed USD$30 billion Comcast-NBC Universal deal has entered the labyrinthine process of winning Congressional approval from the antitrust gurus and the Federal Communications Commission. Small cable operators, which apparently still exist, fear that they will be driven out of business by the sprawling new company that would combine NBC's programming with Comcast's vast network of 24 million subscribers.

Those of us who remember the Frankenstein that was AOL Time Warner may shudder as we hear these words again: "It's great to own content and distribution!"

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European users of Windows 7, Vista, and XP who have Internet Explorer set as their default Web browser will very soon be given a choice of alternatives, and that choice will reveal itself to users by way of an important Windows update. The announcement came this morning from Brussels, where the European Commission has accepted the latest adjusted proposal from Microsoft, in response to the EC's Statement of Objections earlier this year.

The Web site which the EC is establishing for public review of the browser ballot -- now being called the Choice Screen -- was not available in Betanews tests Wednesday morning, though should soon appear at www.browserchoice.eu.

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Microsoft's Web brower antitrust troubles in Europe are essentially over. Starting in mid-March, European Windows users will have option to choose the default Web browser. Microsoft also will embark on a new interoperability initiative.

In a press conference today, the European Union's chief antitrust enforcer, Neelie Kroes, described the situation she sees about browser choice: "It is as if you went to the supermarket and they only offered you one brand of shampoo on the shelf, and all the other choices are hidden out the back, and not everyone knows about them. What we are saying today is that all the brands should be on the shelf."

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Because Apple forcefully pushes the quantity of apps in the iTunes App Store as a mark of superiority, other mobile application stores are tallied whether or not they want to be.

Unofficial Android Market Web portal AndroLib recently announced that Google's Android Market has hit the 20,000 app milestone, putting it a distant second behind Apple's App Store, but growing fast.

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Earlier this evening, Microsoft formally announced a new search app for iPhone on the Bing Community blog. The Bing app is available now from the App Store, complete with voice search. I emphasize the now because the app has a December 16 release date on the 15th.

Based on a very quick, cursory look, Bing is a competent iPhone app, tapping into the kind of capabilities expected from the platform. Bing fits nicely into the App Store repertoire. I wouldn't call the features revolutionary -- Apple and Google are there already with advanced mapping and GPS -- but the packaging appeals, and Microsoft manages to offer a user experience that is fairly consistent with Bing Web search.

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The question is worth your answer (in comments, please), following data released by Nielsen and NPD over the last 40 hours. According to Nielsen, U.S. Internet users spent an average 66 hours 24 minutes and 44 seconds on a PC in November. An average 6 hours 10 minutes and 6 seconds spent on the Internet went to Facebook.

But for all the talk about newer technologies -- whether Hulu and YouTube streaming or iTunes and iPods -- NPD claims that more Americans still consume traditional media. The data strangely juxtapositions with advertising spending trends.

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Download Google Toolbar for Firefox version 7.0.2009.1214Wb1 from Fileforum now.

You know the global domain name system is not the perfect solution for today's modern Internet when an entire cottage industry evolves around masking it, removing the dot-com and making URLs more portable. TinyURL.com helped pioneer that market years ago, but since that time, bit.ly has become the official shortening service of Twitter, where small URLs are the most precious commodity. Competitor tr.im still struggles to compete there, as its trimmed URLs are automatically replaced with substitutes from preferred partner bit.ly.

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Worldwide Mobile phone sales will nudge down in 2009 compared to 2008 rather than sharply decline. In forecast data released by Gartner today, global handset sales will reach 1.214 billion units, down 0.67 percent from 2008. Three months earlier, Gartner forecast a 3.7 percent year-over-year decline in sales. Gartner tracks actual sales to end users, not shipments to carriers or retailers.

While bloggers and other pundits like to talk up iPhone as the competitor that will unseat global market leader Nokia, the threat is elsewhere. "The grey market will affect Nokia's market share the most," Carolina Milanesi, Gartner research director, said in a statement. Grey market sales have increased throughout the year, with surprising tenacity, and they're spreading.

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As you may be already aware, a grass roots movement launched by blogger Dan Lyons calls upon iPhone users to...well, to congest the AT&T network for one hour, at noon Pacific Time this Friday. The cause? Recent comments made by AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega, effectively blaming network users for network congestion and poor service quality.

That may not be the best ad for the iPhone -- AT&T's star product in the US -- as the holiday season progresses. But maybe that's not for us to decide, but for you. Here's the first of what we hope will be many regular Betanews Polls, made possible by our friends at PollDaddy.com.

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Our appetite for mobile broadband is huge, and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski recently warned of a "looming spectrum crisis" where we cannot accommodate our traffic if we don't significantly expand our commercial wireless footprint. As we saw with the 700 MHz and AWS blocks, the process of assessing, vacating, licensing, and repopulating wireless frequencies takes many years.

This morning, the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet gathered for a hearing about HR 3019 and HR 3125, two bills that aim to speed up the inventory and re-allocation of spectrum so we can be ready to accommodate the explosive growth of consumer mobile broadband.

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Your set-top box as a phone

The second major development this week that could spin the whole net neutrality debate 720 degrees on its ear, comes from an unexpected source: Broadcom. This morning, the maker of systems-on-a-chip (SoC) for handsets and set-top boxes (STB) announced the development of a multimedia SoC designed for use in STBs, that integrates not only VoIP telephony but also interfaces for applications that could utilize IP connectivity.

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In November, Apple burst into the Top 10 U.S. parent Websites, as measured by number of visitors. Nielsen released the data earlier today. Apple has been in the list of Top 10 Web brands for some time, but its appearance in the "Top 10 Parent Companies/Divisions" is unusual.

The Nielsen Wire blog explains the difference between parent and brand levels: "The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content."

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In-car Wi-Fi isn't a completely terrible idea; and having a reliable connection to the Internet could significantly change car travel for everyone involved. A DIY car stereo, for example, could be equipped with free services like Pandora, Shoutcast, and Mediafly for the driver, or headrest-mounted monitors could stream Netflix for the passengers. These sorts of things could be handy on any length trip, and there are forums all over the place for enthusiasts looking to build systems which could benefit from a broadband connection.

Today, General Motors announced it has begun offering "Chevrolet Wi-Fi" in seven of its current generation Chevrolet vehicles: Equinox,Traverse, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Avalanche, and Express. The service is provided by Autonet Mobile, which provides connectivity to select Chrysler, Dodge and Volkswagen automobiles as well.

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So let me get this straight: AT&T says iPhone users are using too much data. And to ease the resulting strain on its network, the carrier wants to...(ahem)...encourage its customers to throttle back on YouTube, live-streamed radio, and other media-rich apps. A week after playing the good guy with "Mark the Spot," a handy iPhone app that lets users report on coverage dead zones, AT&T is reversing any goodwill gained by warning heavy users they may soon face extra charges for their data gluttony.

Someone please tell me this is little more than a badly thought-out joke.

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A few years back, a tip for marketers that had been passed around with regard to search engine optimization was this: Drum up a phrase and build buzz around the phrase, so as to improve your standing in Google's search index. Later, you can then use the phrase in its branding and your path to contextual glory will be paved in advance. Apparently Google was reading that tip too, because it managed to create buzz over the weekend for a Google Phone even though -- at least from T-Mobile's perspective -- there's already more than one.

Google officially declined comment on a multitude of questions Betanews posed this morning, although one of the declined questions was significant for its having been declined. It did not specifically regard the Android phone whose existence Google confirmed in a blog post Saturday morning. It was more of an analyst question: What did Google expect the balance of its operating expenses to be, between manufacturing and R&D, going forth into 2012?

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