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The Question

I've been coding for a while and realized that the head and header look exactly the same. Are they the same, and what is the difference between them? Does it make a difference?

After researching a bit I couldn't find much info on this, I may not have been digging deep enough. The info I found was that the <head> tag came out since HTML 1 as the <header> tag came out in HTML5. Is one more stable from the other?

Summary

I would like to understand the difference between the two tags. I would like a creditable/ or official source. If you can please post the link of where you got the information. A example of the code would be helpful too! The main question I am asking is whether there is a difference and if so what difference is there. Is there a benefit from one of them? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

makertech81
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  • Duplicate sorry, didn't research enough. I honestly ment to answer my own question, but I also did not see that there already was posts. Sorry. – makertech81 Nov 25 '15 at 15:05
  • Also for future reference, just clearly state *what* you are asking for, no need to explain *how* it should be answered. Experienced users on this site already know how to post a quality answer :D – pseudocoder Nov 25 '15 at 15:12
  • I'll take note. Every time I ask a question here it always goes downhill. Yet when I answer questions it goes uphill. :D – makertech81 Nov 25 '15 at 15:13
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    Asking a good question is certainly harder than composing a good answer. Here are some tips that might help you with your next question: http://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask – pseudocoder Nov 25 '15 at 15:21

3 Answers3

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A quick Google search reveals the following:

Head tag:
The HTML <head> element provides general information (metadata) about the document, including its title and links to/definitions of scripts and style sheets. (HTML MDN)

Header tag:
The HTML <header> element represents a group of introductory or navigational aids. It may contain some heading elements but also other elements like a logo, wrapped section's header, a search form, and so on. (HTML MDN)

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In other words; the head tag is used for document title, styling, scripts, etc.
Whereas the header tag is used for headers as seen in articles.

Newspaper 'header'. Newspaper 'header'

EDIT: Updated reference, as psuedocoder mentioned, W3Schools is not always fully reliable.

Mr Lister
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Arena
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From W3C:

https://www.w3.org/wiki/HTML/Elements/head

"The <head> element represents a collection of metadata for the Document."

https://www.w3.org/wiki/HTML/Elements/header

"The <header> element represents a group of introductory or navigational aids."

The main difference is that the <head> element is for META data and the <header> element is for actual content.

Mr Lister
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pseudocoder
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The HTML <head> tag is a container for metadata and links to scripts and stylesheets.

The <header>tag is a semantic container used to designate contents that is introductory or navigational in nature.

Vecta
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