if you can map these hashes to actual URLs, you can get rid of hashes entirely by using HTML5's history methods. see: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/Manipulating_the_browse... you can fall back on hashes for browsers without support.

the first implementation i've seen of this is in Flickr. i was amazed when i ran into it yesterday. you have to be signed in to preview the new photo pages, but the zoomed/lightboxed photo pages use HTML5 history in compatible browsers and fall back when they can't. their JS is viewable at: http://l.yimg.com/g/combo.gne?j/history-manager.js.v90829.14