Endeavoring to create a professional rulebook for the open Web, Apple, Adobe, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, and Opera have joined the W3C to launch WebPlatform.org. The new Web site will serve a "single source of relevant, up-to-date and quality information on the latest HTML5, CSS3, and other Web standards, offering tips on Web development" and best practices for the technologies,” The Next Web reports. The site will exist as a Wiki for company representatives to add and amend their own contributions. 

After a year-long investigation, the House intelligence committee has concluded that a Chinese telecommunications company that has been trying to expand in the U.S. poses a national-security threat, and may have already violated U.S. laws. “The firm, Huawei Technologies Inc., and a second firm, ZTE Inc., pose security risks to the U.S. because their equipment could be used for spying on Americans,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “The committee recommends that the U.S. block acquisitions or mergers involving the two companies” -- and avoid using equipment from the firms. 

Credit cards aside, what’s next on the horizon for Google? For one, the company appears ready to take new artificial intelligence software -- apparently modeled after human brain cells -- and bake in into some existing services. In the simplest terms, “the company's neural networks decide for themselves which features of data to pay attention to, and which patterns matter, rather than having humans decide that, say, colors and particular shapes are of interest to software trying to identify objects,” explains MIT’s TechnologyReview.com. Shortly, Google’s speech recognition services are expected to benefit from these mind-bending efforts. 

In still more Facebook news, The Next Web picks up on reports that sending a link in a Facebook private message increases the Like counter on the link’s originating third-party Website. “This would suggest Facebook is scanning your private messages for shared links to Web pages with Like buttons, so it can increase the number of corresponding Likes for those pages,” TNW’s Emil Protalinski writes. “Facebook confirmed this information with me today.” 

At a time when Facebook could use all the PR prowess it can handle, the social network is reportedly losing Joe Lockhart, its all-star VP of global communications. “His departure comes nearly 15 months after he joined the company in July of last year, where he worked alongside Marne Levine, another Beltway insider who has served Facebook as VP of global public policy since 2010,” AllThingsD reports. Lockhart famously served as communications secretary for President Bill Clinton during the latter half of Clinton’s second term in office. 

Bridging old and new media, Facebook debuted its first TV ad, this week. “The ad isn't really designed to sell anything,” according to the Los Angeles Times. “It is designed to help us understand Facebook's role in the world. What is Facebook’s role, exactly? Apparently, the same role of chairs, doorbells, airplanes, bridges, and the universe. Failing to follow the logic, LAT considers the ad – which was created by Wieden & Kennedy -- eye-roll worthy.   

Facebook is facing another patent-infringement lawsuit -- this time from Bascom Research, which calls itself as a “software-development company focused on applying computational and data structures to complex data sets in the medical field.” No stranger to patent cases, “Hardly a month goes by without Facebook finding itself named in a patent-infringement lawsuit,” AllFacebook notes. Bascom Research is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lexington Technology Group, which announced its merger with Document Security Systems, a provider of anti-counterfeit, authentication, and mass-serialization technologies. 

Microsoft is rumored to be in talks to acquire music streaming, subscription and discovery service Rdio. “We’re running the rumor because those talks are likely actually taking place, and because an eventual deal would make sense for both parties,” The Next Web writes. Indeed, “Microsoft is currently trying to transform itself into what CEO Steve Ballmer calls a ‘devices-and-services company,’” TNW note. With or without Rdio, TBW believes that music discovery is an essential part of Ballmer’s strategy. 

Confirming earlier rumors, TechCrunch reports that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit just acquired augmented reality and image recognition firm Viewdle. Upon announcing the deal, Motorola noted in a statement: “Motorola and Viewdle have an existing commercial agreement and have been collaborating for some time.” Meanwhile, “While Motorola isn’t disclosing the price of the acquisition, the rumor mill pegs it between $30 million and $45 million,” TechCrunch reports. 

Perhaps inspiring a song or two, digital music streaming company Rdio plans to pay artists to turn fans of their music into fans of Rdio. “Artist Program, which launches today, will let participating artists turn to social media to share songs -- which can be either their own tracks, or other artists’ -- with their fans online via trackable song links and embeddable music players,” Fast Company reports. For each fan who becomes a subscriber, Rdio promises to pay the responsible artist $10. “Rdio will also provide artists with a dashboard that reflects real-time stats on where and how they're …