When is the best time to use <b> and <i> in lieu of <strong> and <em>, if ever?

Question

Semantically speaking, is there an appropriate place in today's websites (late 2008+) where using the bold and italic tags are more useful than the more widely used and tags? JavaScript questions and answers, JavaScript questions pdf, JavaScript question bank, JavaScript questions and answers pdf, mcq on JavaScript pdf, JavaScript questions and solutions, JavaScript mcq Test , Interview JavaScript questions, JavaScript Questions for Interview, JavaScript MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

Answer 1

While in general I would stay away from non-semantic tags like b and i, strong and em are not direct replacements for b and i. I would use b or i when it's only presentation you're going for, and what you're marking up has no semantic meaning. For example, a logo like stackoverflow could be marked up with stackoverflow. The "overflow" portion has no semantic meaning over "stack", yet stackoverflow doesn't offer anything either. Hope this helps. Not sure how to comment (edit: need moar karma!), but this is in reply to Erik's comment. Please read the HTML5 working draft. It gives a good explanation on when to use b. The b element represents a span of text to be stylistically offset from the normal prose without conveying any extra importance, such as key words in a document abstract, product names in a review, or other spans of text whose typical typographic presentation is boldened. "overflow" does not have emphasis over "stack" in the logo, therefore wrapping "overflow" with em is semantically incorrect.