@jjfine: <form> has a lot of built-in browser behavior that you may want to take advantage of, and that users expect in typical form scenarios (whether they realize it or not). validation, various shortcuts for different input methods. depending on your use case, their absence may not be noticed, or it may be an annoyance that users might not even know how to express. my default is to use <form> unless I have a really compelling reason not to.