Windows 8 (Metro) used semantic zoom. It's been a while, but I do remember that one of the apps that used it very nicely was Photos. A search for "windows metro semantic zoom" comes up with lots of articles about semantic-zoom-aware GridView controls etc.
Why isn't it commonplace? I think that touchscreen laptops are still too much a minority, and keyboard + mouse + monitor are too entrenched, for anyone to seriously attempt it again for a while. (A shame -- I'm one of the few who really liked the Windows 8 Metro interface.) I think that phones are too small for it to really work well. I don't know why it's not more popular on tablets.
Why isn't it commonplace? I think that touchscreen laptops are still too much a minority, and keyboard + mouse + monitor are too entrenched, for anyone to seriously attempt it again for a while. (A shame -- I'm one of the few who really liked the Windows 8 Metro interface.) I think that phones are too small for it to really work well. I don't know why it's not more popular on tablets.