<time>, <address>, <abbr>: micro-semantics

Three small tags that machines love

<p>Published on <time datetime="2026-05-20">May 20, 2026</time>.</p>

<address>
  Reach me at <a href="mailto:hi@example.com">hi@example.com</a>
</address>

<p>Use <abbr title="Application Programming Interface">API</abbr> wisely.</p>

<time datetime="…"> — machine-readable dates

The visible text is whatever you want ("Tuesday", "May 20", "next week"). The datetime attribute is the machine format (ISO 8601). RSS readers, search engines, and "events near you" parsers all use it.

<time datetime="2026-05-20">May 20</time>
<time datetime="2026-05-20T14:30:00Z">2:30 PM UTC</time>
<time datetime="PT15M">15 minutes</time>

<address> — contact info for the AUTHOR

It's not for any address. It's for the contact info of the author of the article (or the page itself, when at body level). Use sparingly.

<article>
  <h2>Post title</h2>
  <address>By <a rel="author">Anna</a></address>
  …
</article>

<abbr title="…"> — expand acronyms

The first time an acronym appears, wrap it in <abbr> with a title attribute holding the full expansion. Browsers show the expansion in a tooltip on hover. Screen readers can read either the short or full form depending on user settings.

<p>The <abbr title="Hypertext Transfer Protocol">HTTP</abbr> protocol…</p>