The W3C just published its latest draft of the HTML 5 standards (www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/). I’m probably not the only one following Markup Language Standards when it comes to SEO, so here are some interesting elements:

1. HTML 5 definitely has an XML-style of presenting Information. This structure could make search engine friendliness easier than ever.
2. There is a new Header tag, semantically equivalent to a H1, which could contain long structured texts. In this header tag, you can have H1, H2, H3 elements, paragraphs, hard-coded links (oh yeah!), versioning info, copyright info, etc.
3. The new section element, “article,” should simplify categorization of the content on blogs, news sites, forums, etc. This will help reduce the number of divs necessary for a good display of information and make cleaner, lighter codes.
4. New phrase elements, such as “Time” and “Meter,” will help build a “respectable/librarian” feel to a page (giving some trust?).
5. Other phrase elements, such as “marked,” will make the “strong” and “em” tags seem boring.
6. A new interactive element, “details,” that can hide extra information until activated. This one can be used for “aggressive” or “clean” SEO; we all know how hidden elements work…
7. Embedded media elements such as video and audio will be easy to optimize. The tags "video" and "audio" are self-sufficient and the alternative descriptions, for legacy browser and accessibility, are included within those tags (not necessary to use a “noscript”). Those tags must be my favorite in HTML 5.  Here’s how clean it could be: (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-html5/)

<audio src="kennedyinauguraladdrees.mp3"> <p>Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman,Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens: </p>        <p> ...    </p></audio>

There are tons of other interesting elements in HTML 5, and I strongly suggest to webmasters and SEOs alike to keep a close watch one that language. Sadly, we know that some popular browsers can take a lot of time evolving to new standards, so it could take years before HTML 5 is implemented and practical…