The New York Times conducts an informal poll of some advertising executives to divine upcoming trends. Agencies, oddly enough, are pondering, among other things, how the online world is intruding into offline reality. Life online will become an inseparable part of the physical world, according to some execs.

Websites will incorporate features from the videogame world - a sort of Second-Life-ing of the internet - predicts Clark Kokich, worldwide president of aQuantive's Avenue A/Razorfish. And more companies will start adding social-networking and user-generated tools onto their intranets, too, he says. Moreover, some retailers have begun using online shopping behavior to determine how to design and stock their bricks-and-mortar stores.

But a backlash will inevitably follow the 24/7 online lifestyle, with workers trying to separate their work lives from their personal space - and turning off cell phones and BlackBerrys.

User-generated ads won't go away, but will be co-opted… "Consumers are demanding and getting a seat at the table and defining what the brand experience is about," said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, NY, a WPP Group brand consultancy. But brands will try to retain a greater measure of control over consumer-made ads.

Finally, as targeting and behavioral technology develop, writes the Times, consumers can look forward to seeing advertisements different from the ones their neighbors see.