Prior to HTML 4, the address element was often regarded as a display formatting tag appropriate for displaying a page author's contact information on the page. Navigator and Internet Explorer display address elements in an italic font. But the increased focus on separating content from form in HTML 4 adds some extra meaning to this element. Search engines and future HTML (or XML) parsers may apply special significance to the content of this element, perhaps in cataloging author information separate from the hidden information located in meta elements. If you want to use this structural meaning of the element while keeping the rendering in line with the rest of your body text, you need to assign style sheet rules to override the browser's default formatting tendencies for this element. Any standard body elements, such as links, can be contained inside an address element.

The language being used for the element's attribute values and content. A browser can use this information to assist in proper rendering of content with respect to details such as treatment of ligatures (when supported by a particular font or required by a written language), quotation marks, and hyphenation. Other applications and search engines might use this information to aid the selection of spell-checking dictionaries and the creation of indices.