Why use canvas for this when plain divs could do the job more easily and more efficiently, with wider browser compatibility? Simply for buzzword compliance?

When we developed swarmation.com we started with canvas and later switched to plain divs. Not only did we manage to throw out most of the code in the switch, things also ran much more smoothly and worked in IE as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for cool new tech, and canvas definitely has its uses. But we should be helping people recognize when plain HTML or SVG are more appropriate, rather than being buzzword-driven.