Site Reference Forums

Interesting read, but I have a couple of semantical points, ironically enough.

It stands for HyperText Markup Language and it’s the accepted programming code

HTML isn't a programming code, it is a layout or templating code.

HTML places content, makes it interactive with web users and provides site navigation via coded links.

HTML isn't interactive in and of itself.  You can make it interactive with Javascript, CSS (to a limited extent, looks really neat though), or a programming language like .NET or php.

Just nitpicking really, but the rest was a good read.

Really?

PHEW!!!!

I can go back to my couch now, and be a potato again.....

I think the point of the article was that properly coded content can help SE's, which I think is entirely true.  I do not think that it is a necessity, but I do think it helps SE's in the long run.  For example, we do know that SE's place some weight on h1 tags and subsequent 'h' tags - this is due to the semantic nature of the web. 

Is a SE going to penalize you for poor or invalid code?  No.  Does this mean that this doesn't play into your ranking.  Absolutely not.

Keep in mind that there are literally hundreds of factors that play into your ranking.  A properly coded site could in theory be interpreted better by an SE while that same SE ranks a poorly coded site above it.  I think the thing to point out is that code is not required for a good ranking...but SE's do pay attention, at least to some tags.

Here is a tool to try,

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/spider-simulator/

It nicely strips out HTML and shows what SE spiders
may see when they crawl a certain URL.

webgaya.

As a very interesting add-on to this discussion.  Peter Norvig, Google Director of Search, had this to say about using the semantic web for search:

"What I get a lot is: 'Why are you against the Semantic Web?' I am not against the Semantic Web. But from Google's point of view, there are a few things you need to overcome, incompetence being the first," Norvig said. Norvig clarified that it was not Berners-Lee or his group that he was referring to as incompetent, but the general user.

"We deal with millions of Web masters who can't configure a server, can't write HTML. It's hard for them to go to the next step. The second problem is competition. Some commercial providers say, 'I'm the leader. Why should I standardize?' The third problem is one of deception. We deal every day with people who try to rank higher in the results and then try to sell someone Viagra when that's not what they are looking for. With less human oversight with the Semantic Web, we are worried about it being easier to be deceptive," Norvig said.

Google Exec Challenges Berners-Lee

Don't know if this answers the debate, but it seems to me like a semantic web is the direction that people want to go, but SE operators are hesitant due to what they perceive as incompetence.