The modern uses for Image Maps

Question

I've been asked to collate a list as possible of the modern uses for Image Maps.

When they first came into being, web-designers in the 90s used them as one of the first ways to create a more immersive experience, but now a-days they can be linked to javascript and jquery to perform all sorts of "exciting" tasks. Many of their possible uses have been superseded by flash, but I'm trying to find recent implementations, that use image maps in a really neat way, along with their urls.

The best I can do is the map highlight plugin for jquery, though sadly it's recent releases don't appear to work with IE8. If it did, it would be most impressive.

Hopefully someone has written some image map work themselves and could show it here. Many thanks.

Answer 1

ScrollMap

Answer 2

I have not used an Image Map in ages... where I can get away with, I just absolutely position links over a background image.

One thing Image Maps can do that CSS and XHTML can't do (reliably) is polygons and circles. You could argue you could place a few hundred 1px links to make a circle - but that solution is ugly, bloated and more trouble than just using an Image Map.