A new fad has taken hold in Silicon Valley, but it lacks substance. We're not necessarily talking about the astronomical valuations placed on companies that don't warrant them--we are, but only indirectly. It's the open platform and the social graph, two ideas popularized by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he announced in May that third-party developers could create programs for his site. Silicon Valley seems to be most taken with the latter. In some tech circles, geeks and venture capitalists alike refer to the social graph as a kind of advertising Holy Grail: think of a gigantic graph with …

Electronics Arts, the world's largest third-party developer of video game software, called on hardware makers Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to abandon the console wars and help build a common gaming platform. EA believes that an open video game platform would not only drive innovation by enhancing competition, but help developers cut costs. Third-party software makers currently have to develop three versions of the same game to reach as many gamers as possible. Hardware makers, meanwhile, typically lose money on consoles, anyway, as most of the revenue is recouped through software sales. "We want an open, standard platform which …

When it opened its platform to third-party developers in May, Facebook started a Web-wide trend. Today, both Apple and News Corp announced they would open their software development kits to outsiders: Apple for its iPhone handset and News Corp. for its Facebook competitor, MySpace. The latter's move was expected, but Apple was a surprise because the iPod maker is a notoriously closed-door company. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the developer tools would be released in February after the company had them as virus proof as possible. "We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many …

The cell phone business has been another big growth area for large tech companies. Apple and Google have both charged into the space in the last year, and they're now being joined by Skype, the Web's largest voiceover IP provider. The eBay company is apparently developing a customized cell phone to run on telecom giant 3 Mobile's network, which spans Europe, Asia and Australia. The device, codenamed the "white phone," will be introduced by late October in Britain, then Hong Kong, Italy and Australia. The phones have a large button above the regular keypad that brings up Skype's mobile …

A group of major traditional and Web media companies today entered into a pact to fight rampant copyright violation on the Internet. The consortium, which includes Microsoft, NBC Universal, News Corp., Viacom, Walt Disney Co. and the video sharing company Dailymotion, agreed to a set of guidelines protecting copyright holders. Conspicuous by their absence were both Google and its video-sharing site, YouTube, which pretty much started and is mostly responsible for the copyright mess. Google was involved in discussions about joining the initiative, but has not yet done so. Among other things, they all agreed to use …

Google on Wednesday unveiled plans for its long-awaited health initiative, which is now set to appear in early 2008, said Marissa Mayer, the company's head of search. Mayer said Google hopes to enhance the way medical records are stored and organized; she pointed out that its search engine is already the starting point for the majority of health-related searches on the Web. Google's biggest competitor in online healthcare will be Microsoft, of course. Earlier this year, the software giant acquired Medstory, a health-related search startup. It unveiled plans to create a personalized, customized health care page for every …

Silicon Valley bubble talk is bubbling up once again. The action this time is taking place in the private sector, leaving the public somewhat safer; even so, a wider bubble burst could drive inflation and send the economy into recession. The telltale signs are there: Internet companies with funny names, little revenue and few customers are commanding high prices. And once again, Internet advertising is being seen as a bottomless trough of cash on which to base one's business model. Worryingly, audience inflation--not revenue--is driving up prices for Web firms, the very thing that brought about the first …

Wired says that the Web 2.0 iteration of the popular address book will be one of the main topics of conversation at this week's Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Address Book 2.0 refers to technology that knows where you are and what you're doing on the Web. Think of it as a gigantic mashup of your email inbox with every social network you belong to. It would be privacy-approved because it's information you've offered; this would just be an aggregation of all the information, and link that information to all the Web-enabled devices you carry. It's an advertiser's …

This is sneaky: Google is apparently recruiting third-party developers to run AdSense ads across Facebook. It's also specifically developing an ad network for third-party developers on Facebook, letting them run ads that only appear on programs within the popular social network. Facebook can't be feeling too good about this. When the social network opened its Facebook Platform to third parties in May, it clearly said that developers could sell ads and keep all the revenue. This means Facebook would get nothing from the sale of Google AdWords on third-party applications. Microsoft is the exclusive seller of advertising on Facebook; …

News Corporation and eBay on Tuesday agreed to put eBay's Skype, a Web-based phone service, on MySpace's instant messaging application. The move should drive greater usage of Skype, as MySpace users trade phone numbers over IM chat to talk with one another. The companies will split revenues from the partnership, which begins in November. Skype only makes money from calls made to mobile and land-line telephones; computer-to-computer calls are free. The eBay phone service has 220 million worldwide users, while MySpace, the Web's largest social network, has 110 million registered members. Kyle Brinkman, vice president of product development at …