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[Conscious User <conscioususer@xxxxxxx>]

> I've changed my mind: this is not a problem! So what if the text box
> has focus automatically? That's a hidden feature. The text goes away
> if you click on the box, but also when you just start typing after
> opening the menu. These features co-exist. Explanatory text in a text
> box seems to be obvious to users, as it pops up all over the web and
> in Firefox, too.
> 
> The rationale behind its intuitiveness is that the text box is
> supposed to contain editable text. So, the first thing you'd try to do
> when you encounter greyed out text in a text box, is to select the
> text. At that point, the text disappears, and you've learned that
> greyed text in a text box is a description.


Yeah, this is not unfamiliar: a lot of web forms use similar tactics.

I don't have much against this idea.