You undoubtedly have heard people using the term HTML5 in different contexts,which has probably caused at least some confusion.Like most so-called technical terms that find their way into the general population, and frequently fall from the lips of not-so-technical people, HTML5 finding it’s way into the general population in fact means more than one thing. At the most basic level HTML5 refers to the next version of the markup language created by Tim Berners-Lee, which now has a governing body guiding its progress.

What’s New?

HTML5 has made a significant leap from HTML4/XHTML1.1. It provides new
HTML tags such as header, footer, hgroup, nav, section, and article in a step
to improve the way we mark up documents. This has allowed us to produce
more meaningful and machine-readable content. HTML5 also brings the standardization of access to APIs,
such as geolocation, canvas, web sockets, and web storage.

But you may ask yourself, what’s the point of using new HTML5 tags when Your users will see the same thing regardless of whether you use the new HTML5 elements. There are several reasons why making this change will have an impact on your users.

  • You can produce cleaner code that is easier to maintain.
  • Machine consumers will have an easier time reading and understanding your code. Machines include search engine bots, browser plugins, and features that rely on understanding how your document’s content is structured.
  • You don’t have to define as many classes and IDs within your document. You can rely more on the cascade to do much of the work for you.

Popular HTML5 Tags

<article />

The <article /> element is used to represent independent content on a page,
such as a blog post, news article, or comment. In principle, an article should
contain its own header, content, and footer.

<aside />

The <aside /> element can be used to represent content unrelated to the main
content of the web site, such as tweets, related links, tags, and navigation
elements. These normally appear to the left or right side of the document.

<audio />

The <audio /> element is used to embed audio content within a web page. This
is new to HTML5 and is not available in HTML4. For browsers not supporting
HTML5 audio, you can provide a link to a 3gp version of the audio file within the
<audio /> tag.

<canvas />

The <canvas /> element provides a context/stage in HTML for you to draw
shapes within. The canvas API will give you an alternative to using DOM elements for graphicintensive
animation or drawing. The <canvas /> element supports width and
height attributes. Any text within the <canvas /> element will be shown to
browsers that do not support it.

<figure /> and <figcaption />

The <figure /> and <figcaption /> elements are used to mark up figures on a
web page, such as a code sample, image, or diagram.

<footer />

The <footer /> element can be used to replace a <div /> element, and is
commonly used to create a footer within a document. The <footer /> element
will usually be used to contain contact and copyright information and links to
privacy policies or terms and conditions.

<header />

The <header /> element can be used to create a header within the document.
The <header /> tag can be used more than once within a document. It will
usually contain a logo and/or a group of header elements. The most common
use for a <header /> element would be to add a logo and navigation at the top
of a page.

also there are few more popular HTML5 tags i.e. <nav/>, <hgroup />, <mark/>, <output/>, <section/>, <time/>,<video/> etc.