Comcast, NBC Universal and General Electric filed a merger application/public interest statement with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday -- following a filing earlier in the week with the Justice Department. According to Broadcasting & Cable, the filings mark the beginning of "what will likely be an almost year-long review." The FCC's review is expected to go beyond competition to look at the public interest impact of the deal with regard to: localism, diversity, competition and innovation. Of note, the FCC filing insists that the companies' merged Internet properties "poses no threat to online competition." Specifically, Comcast …

Lost amid all the iPad hoopla, local review site Yelp just closed $25 million in Series E funding from Elevation Partners. The deal also includes a provision in which Elevation -- a new investor -- would buy up to $75 million of stock from "vested employees and other eligible shareholders." "The infusion signals that Yelp intends to grow on its own, rather than as part of Google or another big company," write The Times' Bits blog in reference to Google's failed attempt to but Yelp for over $500 million last month. So, along …

In a move sure to stir location-based Web services, Twitter has added a new system that displays Tweet "trends" relevant to one's geographic location. Explaining in a blog post why it's augmenting its trends feature with a localized version, Twitter says: "Trends began as a way to she [sic] light on popular conversations [...] help us discover which of those topics are paramount on a global scale." For the time being, according to Fast Company, "this system is very limited, and it only works to limit the trend list to that of seven different countries and 15 different …

To most consumers, the lowercase "i" means all things Apple. But, to appease government regulators and privacy advocates, the ad industry will now use the little letter to identify online ads using demographic and behavioral data. In the name of transparency, the plan -- according to Jules Polonetsky, co-chairman and director of the Future of Privacy Forum, which helped create the symbol -- is to get consumers to associate the "i" with the highly controversial ad tracking technology. Most major companies running online ads are expected to begin adding the icon to their ads by mid-summer, along with phrases like …

Despite all the buzz surrounding Apple's device, The Financial Times suggests several reasons to doubt its ultimate success. For one, computer makers have flirted with tablets for decades without sparking mass-market interest. Apple is able to reinvent preexisting markets, you say? Well, Apple's iPhones are popular and profitable, but they still only accounted for 2% of the billion or so mobile phones sold globally last year. And, even if tablets are the future, electronics manufacturers will need some time to catch up, FT.com notes. "Launching a new product on an unsuspecting market is one thing, but a …

Giving local information and review sites a run for their money, AT&T is mixing up the market with buzz.com -- a new social recommendations site designed to help people hunt down the best local businesses using recommendations from friends and family. AT&T is as unlikely a player as you might think. The phone carrier was an early pioneer in local search and advertising with the Yellow Pages, and later YellowPages.com. AT&T came up with the idea for buzz.com about a year and a half ago, David Krantz, president and chief executive of AT&T Interactive, tells Forbes.com. Through …

ValleyWag has created a detailed rubric to determine whether magazine and newspaper publishers will be thrilled or chilled by Apple's tablet unveiling. "The tablet's potential impact on the oldest of old media is ultimately bounded by Jobs' own priorities," ValleyWag writes. "If he keeps his reality distortion field focused on their products for a good portion of his speech, magazine and newspaper executives will take heart ... If he doesn't, they'll no doubt be reaching for their heart medication." What to look for? Does Jobs bring a print exec on stage? Does Jobs bring a magazine exec/editor (Jann …

As if there were any doubt, McGraw-Hill's CEO confirmed the future of an Apple tablet on Tuesday, ahead of Apple's private unveiling this afternoon. "Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one," Terry McGraw told CNBC. "We have worked with Apple for quite a while ... And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable." Working directly with McGraw and other publisher, Apple is "going to open up the higher education market, the professional market," McGraw added. Perhaps beating McGraw to …

Successfully riding out the downturn, digital marketing is poised for a strong rebound this year, according to new to research from the Society of Digital Agencies, and cited by eMarketer. The "2010 Digital Marketing Outlook" report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, while one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Also, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital. Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority this year, followed closely by digital infrastructure. While social …

It looks like Google is quietly assembling something akin to a "social-networking task force," according to CNet's The Social blog. Open-standards guru Will Norris said Tuesday that he's heading to Google in February, joining several other well-known social-networking experts who recently joined the company. "I will be joining fellow new hires Joseph Smarr and Chris Messina, as well as a host of other incredibly talented engineers, in contributing to the emerging standards and growing developer community in this space," Norris wrote on his blog. Late last year, Smarr said he was leaving his job as chief technology officer …