I can give you a starter. Stacking is still very much alive and well, with perhaps the best example being Cisco's implementation of it on their 3750 gigabit switches. I've used a number of stacking technologies over the years, many of which claim to be hot-swapable but aren't in practice. These ones really are, and the stack will even automatically run a software upgrade onto a new member when you add it.
As to advantages, the stacking port usually provides a higher capacity interconnect between the units than you could achieve using a port-to-port link, you have the advantage of being able to eaddress the entire stack as one big switch for management purposes and you can manage the whole stack from just a single IP address.
Another benefit is resilience. With Cisco's stacking on the 3750s you connect the stacking cables as a complete loop, which means that you can literally rip out any switch from any position in the stack and the others will retain connectivity and keep on working
