On the

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

, an interstitial webpage (or interstitial) is a web page displayed before or after an expected content page, often to display

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

or for regulatory reasons, such as to confirm the user's age (prior to showing age-restricted material) or obtain consent to store

cookies A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chi ...

. Most interstitial advertisements are delivered by an ad server. Some people take issue with the use of such pages to present online advertising before allowing users to see the content they were trying to access.

Meaning of interstitial

In this context, "interstitial" is used in the sense of “in-between”. The interstitial web page sits between a referenced page and the page which references it—hence it is in between two pages. This is distinct from a page which simply links directly to another, in that the interstitial page serves only to provide extra information to a user during the act of navigating from one page to the next. In

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

, the term “interstitial” is often used in the sense of “interstitial advertising”, rather than “interstitial webpage”. In some cases, this may lead to confusion because interstitial ads are not always served on interstitial web pages. According to a standard advanced by the IAB, an interstitial (also known as a between-the-page ad) can either be displayed on a separate webpage or appear briefly as an overlay on the destination page. Moreover, mobile advertising guidelines created by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) include in-app interstitial ads, that are integrated into applications, rather than web pages.

Circumvention

Many interstitial pages are circumvented by NoScript and

ad blockers Ad blocking or ad filtering is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a web browser, an application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or other methods. Technologies and native countermeasures ...

References

Web design Online advertising methods {{web-stub

Meaning of interstitial

Circumvention

See also

References