On Apr 1, 2008, at 2:48 AM, Alexey Feldgendler wrote:
This is a proposal for semantic markup in HTML5.
Problem statement:
Modern web pages, especially those written for marketing purposes,
often include so-called buzzwords, or trend-leveraging verbal
tokens. Markup for them is needed both to achieve distinct visual
rendering and to emphasize them for search engines. Despite the need
for specialized semantic markup, currently no such markup exists,
and authors use ad-hoc presentational markup for buzzwords.
Proposed solution:
Redefine the existing deprecated presentational element <B> to mean
a buzzword. Keep existing default style (font-weight: bold)
associated with it. With such formatting, buzzwords will visually
stand out on the page, allowing the reader, such as a prospective VC
evaluating an IT project proposal, to briefly skim through a web
page picking out only buzzwords.
Advantages:
* The solution is backward compatible with existing browsers which
already implement distinct rendering for <B>.
* The practice of using <B> to mark up buzzwords is already widely
adopted.
* Some search engines rank words marked up with <B> higher than the
rest of the text.
* <B> is a nice single-letter tag name that would be sad to waste as
an obsolete element.
I believe the current definition of the B element allows for such use:
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-b
"The b element represents a span of text to be stylistically offset
from the normal prose without conveying any extra importance, such as
key words in a document abstract, product names in a review, or other
spans of text whose typical typographic presentation is boldened."
Regards,
Maciej
