HTML5: Up and Running

New Semantic Elements in HTML5

HTML5 is not just about making existing markup shorter (although it does a fair amount of that). It also defines a number of new semantic elements. The following elements are defined by the HTML5 specification:

<section>	The section element represents a generic section of a document or application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading. Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A website’s home page could be split into different sections for the introduction, news items, and contact information.
<nav>	The nav element represents a section of a page that links to other pages or to parts within the page: a section with navigation links. Not all groups of links on a page need to be in a nav element—only sections that consist of major navigation blocks are appropriate for the nav element. In particular, it is common for footers to have a short list of links to various pages of a site, such as the terms of service, home page, and copyright page. The footer element alone is sufficient for such cases, without a nav element.
<article>	The article element represents a self-contained composition in a document, page, application, or site that is intended to be independently distributable or reusable, e.g., in syndication. This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a blog entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive ...