Oops! It didn’t escape my tags. I meant, better >header< than >div id=”header”&lt:

Then an > address< block within an hcard.

Using HTML5 now has several advantages: an anchor can link directly to, say, , rather than . Much quicker and easier to type, and easier to find when looking through code.
I personally love the idea of defining an block within an hcard- works great, and so much cleaner code. I have my hcard stored as an external xml file, styled through xsl to an hcard, which can then be downloaded as a vcard. It also has an xslfo, and I am working on an xsd for an organisation. Then all I have to do is call the relevant function via my PHP class (or whatever) to parse it as required. Even with this level of complexity, it still produces very clean code.

I am sure that semantic tags are used by some search engines already (can’t remember where I read that), and with microformats, rdf and the like, it is only going to grow. Better to make use of all the tools you can to increase your hitrate.

Lastly, less typing= less tired hands, and faster load times for pages.

Well, although you do need a little JS to get IE to let you style them you can use header, footer, section, nav and article tags. The spec is also much clearer on how and when h1 elements are used.

Using html 5 makes you think differently because it forces a level of semantics into the code. The more it is used the more likely the search engines are to take note, and the more it will be used, making the browser makers take note, although to an extent they are already doing that.

Whether you consider these things to be advantages to you or not is another matter.

How does HTML5 lay the page out any differently, or at least in it’s current form?

I don’t think using it will bring it along any more quickly. If you aren’t making use of any of it’s advantages then I don’t think it will achieve anything except altering a line of code.

Perhaps there are advantages, but I am unaware of any of them myself.

The advantages are that using it now will help to bring it along more quickly, and will prepare you for when other people start using it.

I personally prefer the HTML 5 method of laying out the page, using sections. The real quesiton is though, what is the harm in using it right now?

But what use is there in using an HTML5 Doctype? I can’t see any benefit whatsoever in using it right now.