"May you live in interesting times," the ironic old Chinese curse goes, and the last few months have certainly been that, as popular revolts toppled authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and precipitated a bloody civil war in Libya. There's already been a great deal of debate about the role of social media in these uprisings - and whether we can even draw links between human action and media influence, of whatever type.

Barneys New York is undergoing a physical and a virtual makeover under the aegis of CEO Mark Lee, who joined the company last fall. While plans to renovate all of the luxury retailer's stores are in the works, Lee has already revamped barneys.com with the launch of The Window. Created in conjunction with digital shop Group SJF, The Window is an editorial site featuring exclusive content related to luxury, culture and beauty.

Traditionally, Cravendale, a brand of milk sold in the UK by Arla Foods, releases a TV commercial, and then supports it with print. But Wieden + Kennedy London convinced its client to forego magazine and newspaper ads and instead rely on social media to support "Cats With Thumbs," a clever spot that finds a gang of Cravendale-craving felines sprouting opposable thumbs, brushing up on military strategy (and needlepoint, too) and forming an army with one objective - quenching its thirst for Cravendale.

Your newest-generation smartphone isn't the only technology that constantly verges on obsolescence. Smartphone-triggering Quick Reality (QR) codes, those ubiquitous square bar codes popping up on everything from magazine pages (most famously in Esquire's December 2010 "Augmented Reality" issue) to billboard advertisements to marketing emails, might already be antiquated - simply because your primitive human eye can see them.

Even though Rosie Larsen has been murdered, fans of AMC's new original series "The Killing," which premiered on April 3, are getting to know her through an interactive narrative experience hosted in "The Killing" section of amctv.com. "You discover things about her - little clues to who she was in life that may help you, to some degree, gain insight into why she may have been murdered," says Mac McKean, vice president of digital media at the AMC Network.

an you imagine Times Square stripped clean of advertising? Actually, you don't have to imagine it. You can make it happen - well, sort of - by visiting nø AD: New York at noadny.com and digitally removing the ads from a panoramic photo of Times Square.

Once 16 himself, Mike Sepso knows something about reaching young male consumers. These insights helped him build Major League Gaming into the nation's top pro-gaming league. More recently, he founded private equity firm and digital media incubator Legion Enterprises. So, what evil lurks in the hearts of young men? Sepso knows.

Picture this: You're in the grocery store deciding which brand of cereal to buy. You take out your cell phone and lob in a call to your significant other asking Cinnamon Life or Banana Nut Crunch?

Anything new and intellectually engaging, which also carries potential for great profit, is naturally going to breed both excitement and anxiety: On one hand, people hope to strike it rich by dint of hard work and good luck, but on the other hand, there's always the fear of missing out, or even that nagging sense that the whole thing could somehow go bust.

Advertisers need to take the small mobile screen into consideration when planning paid search campaigns, as formats continue to evolve and technology improves to display and track ads. Expect technology to evolve this year to track purchase behavior, as well as link activity on mobile devices to in-store purchases.