The <b> tag in HTML is used to make text bold, providing a visual emphasis without conveying any extra semantic meaning. It is primarily a stylistic element, which distinguishes it from tags like <strong>, which are intended to indicate importance or strong emphasis to both users and assistive technologies.

The <b> tag can be used to highlight keywords, product names, or any text that needs to stand out visually, but it does not imply that the content is more important or urgent. Because it’s purely presentational, it’s ideal for cases where you want bold formatting for design purposes rather than for accessibility or semantic emphasis.

Key Features:

• Purpose: Bold text for styling or visual emphasis.
• Semantic meaning: None; purely visual.
• Content model: Can contain text and inline elements.
• Browser support: Fully supported across all modern and legacy browsers.
• Accessibility: Screen readers generally do not interpret <b> differently from normal text since it does not indicate importance. For semantic importance, <strong> should be used instead.

Example Usage:

<p>Our new product, the <b>UltraWidget 3000</b>, is now available online!</p>

Result: Our new product, the UltraWidget 3000, is now available online!

Best Practices:

• Use <b> when you want visual bolding without implying importance.
• Prefer <strong> if you want to convey importance or urgency semantically.
• Combine <b> with CSS for more advanced styling if needed, e.g., font-weight or color.