Medium and method for interactive seamless branching and/or telescopic advertising

A method is described for playing stored continuous play content having a temporal flow. At least one segment of the continuous play content is associated with a plurality of links to other segments. The method includes playing at least one segment with temporal flow, determining whether a content expansion is desired, linking to and playing the expansion, if desired, or linking to and playing a continuing segment if the expansion is not desired. The method includes an additional link from the expansion to the continuing segment of the first segment such that the continuing segment is played after the expansion segment has been played. Other teachings include methods for playing stored content, for capturing and playing content, for capturing segment and linkage descriptions, storage mechanisms referencing the continuous play content and linkages and apparatuses for capturing and playing such content.