Seeking a place called home

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• All Things Digital surmises that Microsoft covets Google and Yahoo's display advertising businesses.

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Carat was selected to manage consumer and trade media buying and planning for Kohler Co. in North and South America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
• Senior VP Wendy Clark of advertising at AT&T has decided to leave the company.
• Jeff Scott, longtime managing director, board member, finance and executive committee member of Campbell Ewald, has left the company.

Biz Buzz:

• Ebay's Q2 profits went up 22 percent, but growth continues to slow at its auction business — the company's primary cash cow.
• YouTube formed a film clip-sharing deal with Lions Gate Entertainment. "There are things in our library … that have been watched tens of millions of times and it will be nice to get paid for that and to set viewers in the direction of buying movies," said Lions Gate Vice Chairman Michael Burns.
• Time Warner is purportedly shopping AOL to Microsoft and Yahoo.

Campaigns of Note:

• ABSOLUT Vodka is using online celebrities Tim and Eric of "Time and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job" in an off-beat online video campaign.
• The Mochila has formed a relationship with Barely Political. The latter's popular Obama Girl videos will appear in the content network.

Legal, Government and Regulation:

• Apple reportedly filed suit against "Mac-clone" Psystar, alleging the latter violated its copyright, trademark and even its shrink wrap license.
• NebuAd faces more congressional critique: a bipartisan passel of Representatives are questioning ISP Embarq about whether it adequately notified consumers of its recent test of NebuAd's system.

Mobile:

• Google now enables local reviews from mobile phones.

Social Networks:

• Virtual world Minyanland joined the GoFish Network, expanding the latter network to 23 million unique visitors per month.