Why should I care about HTML5?

Why should I care about HTML5?
As mentioned, at the core of HTML5 are a number of new semantic elements, as
well as several related technologies and APIs. These additions and changes to the
language have been introduced with the goal of web pages being easier to code, use,
and access.
These new semantic elements, along with other standards like WAI-ARIA and Microdata
(which we cover in Appendix B and Appendix C respectively), help make
our documents more accessible to both humans and machines—resulting in benefits
for both accessibility and search engine optimization.
The semantic elements, in particular, have been designed with the dynamic web
in mind, with a particular focus on making pages more modular and portable.We’ll
go into more detail on this in later chapters.
Finally, the APIs associated with HTML5 help improve on a number of techniques
that web developers have been using for years. Many common tasks are now simplified,
putting more power in developers’ hands. Furthermore, the introduction of
HTML5-based audio and video means there will be less dependence on third-party
software and plugins when publishing rich media content on the Web.
Overall, there is good reason to start looking into HTML5’s new features and APIs,
and we’ll discuss more of those reasons as we go through this book.