Revenge of Fallen: <i> Is Back

Thirteen months ago, I proposed that the <i> (italics) tag is not evil.

This year, XHTML 2.0 is dead (or maybe a zombie, at best), and HTML5 is ascendent.

And so I take great pleasure in noting that the <i> tag is back:

The i element now represents a span of text in an alternate voice or mood, or otherwise offset from the normal prose, such as a taxonomic designation, a technical term, an idiomatic phrase from another language, a thought, a ship name, or some other prose whose typical typographic presentation is italicized. Usage varies widely by language.

Not only is it back, it's better than ever with a defined semantic meaning:

Authors are encouraged to use the class attribute on the i element to identify why the element is being used, so that if the style of a particular use (e.g. dream sequences as opposed to taxonomic terms) is to be changed at a later date, the author doesn't have to go through the entire document (or series of related documents) annotating each use. Similarly, authors are encouraged to consider whether other elements might be more applicable than the i element, for instance the em element for marking up stress emphasis, or the dfn element to mark up the defining instance of a term.

Style sheets can be used to format i elements, just like any other element can be restyled. Thus, it is not the case that content in i elements will necessarily be italicized.

As for em? You can still use it — for stress emphasis. Just like it was intended. Not as a lame and inadequate substitute for italic's alternate emphasis, as em so often is.