Nick Dunn

wrote on November 15, 2007 3:26 AM

Windows Live Mail is in there twice with different results -- which one is true?

Kelly

wrote on November 15, 2007 4:21 AM

I don't know about Campaign Monitor, but every other email service provider I've used does not allow you to track links in image maps, which can create problems for measuring your success.

DD

wrote on November 15, 2007 6:50 AM

Can you elaborate on image maps not working in GMail? I send out HTML emails every week that use image maps, test them in my GMail account, and have never had a problem with them not working. Do they not function under specific conditions perhaps?

Mark Wyner

wrote on November 15, 2007 9:44 AM

@Nick Dunn:

Very sorry, Nick et al. One of those items was supposed to be Windows Live Hotmail. With all the name changes, I became a little dizzy. The table has been updated to reflect both Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Mail.

@ Kelly:

Good question. As it turns out Campaign Monitor does indeed track image-map links.

@DD:

I probably should have clarified that Gmail support is inconsistent, not altogether absent (I have updated the post). Image maps in Gmail function in all browsers except Safari. And because Safari is a common web browser, the results are inconsistent and thus unstable.

It's very odd that a browser should have an impact on the presentation of an HTML email in a webmail client (other than general browser inconsistencies), but in this case it does. So we consider it to be a Gmail flaw in communicating with Safari, because Safari does indeed support image maps.

The important thing to consider, though, is not which email clients support image maps. Rather, their use should be carefully considered because of the frequency of disabled images and also the accessibility issues for those using assistive devices.

DD

wrote on November 16, 2007 10:26 AM

Thanks for the additional information Mark and for the clarification on the GMail image maps issue. Very useful to know!

Kim Flournoy

wrote on December 1, 2007 7:23 AM

Thanks - this answered my question exactly. Guess I'll need to slice up my images after all...

KC

wrote on December 7, 2007 7:37 AM

I have noticed that if an email is forwarded to someone else, a lot of email clients will drop the image map as well. Another reason to avoid image maps.

RB

wrote on December 7, 2007 8:57 AM

Not everyone here knows exactly what you mean when you say Image Maps. Please define.

Ryan in Noo Zeelund

wrote on December 7, 2007 9:26 AM

I've recently experienced image map inconsistencies in Gmail between Firefox and IE7 in a mate's email.

2 maps, both worked in IE7 but one map broke in Firefox... needless to say I'll be sending my mate a link to this page to help build an argument against maps!

Wendy

wrote on January 26, 2008 8:34 AM

Have you encountered any problems with Outlook Web Access? I have an email with an image map and it works everywhere except when users check their email through Outlook Web Access.

Stephen Bair

wrote on January 31, 2008 5:18 AM

//Windows Live Mail is in there twice with different results -- which one is true?

One is for Live Mail the other is for Hotmail they're both on the Windows Live platform, but different servers and such. Hence the difference.

Geoffrey R

wrote on February 27, 2008 11:38 PM

Just wondering, are you going to revisit this test any time soon? Only I just tested one of my emails (with an imagemap) in Gmail/Safari, and it seems to work fine. They might have fixed it in the meantime.

Dave Greiner

wrote on February 29, 2008 3:10 PM

Cheers Geoffrey, we'll look at running a new test some time soon and updating our findings.

Eric Mehlenbeck

wrote on April 10, 2008 3:53 AM

Has anyone seen that once in mousedown state a border appears around the map in MS Entourage? Anyone figure out a workaround for this?

Cheers,

Eric

AS

wrote on April 25, 2008 1:41 AM

Has anyone had issues with "mailto" links not working in an image map? The link do not seem to be recognized in Hotmail, Gmail and Outlook '03. To my surprise they seem to work in Outlook '07.

David Levin

wrote on April 25, 2008 9:01 AM

One thing to keep in mind when using image maps in an email is to make sure to take advantage of the ALT tag to give a description of where the user will go. If the user has images turned off, many email clients will still show the alt tags so he/she can still get an idea of the purpose of the graphic and where each link should take them.

Its a bummer about safari and gmail. Has anyone tried using Safari for the PC with Gmail? I wonder if this issue still remains.

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