Are image maps deprecated?

Question

Are image maps deprecated in (x)HTML?

Answer 1

It is in the HTML 5 draft spec.

It also appears in the XHTML strict DTD:

In short - it is part of both specs and is not deprecated.

Some people do not like image maps because they perceive them as not very accessible or discoverable, and as such there are other markup/css/javascript techniques that work better.

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The map element doesn't appear in the obsolete section of the HTML 5 spec either. In fact, several obsolete features have a recommendation to use image maps instead.