[5h]

Seems OTT to me,

I generally use normal boring labels, then modernizer to detect if the browser supports placeholders, if so hide the labels and add placeholders to the attributes

[remybach]

That's not what placeholders are meant to be used for though (see here: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/...).

This plugin doesn't replace (true) placeholder functionality, so I suppose it's the same as what you're doing except more semantic.

[remybach]

Oh, also... once you're in the field, the placeholder disappears and you have no idea what you were meant to type (which is why the plugin slides to the side by default).

[flixic]

No. Placeholders stay visible until user starts typing. That is, empty focused field still has visible placeholder.

[Skalman]

Only in Chrome. Not in Firefox, at least.

[remybach]

True! It wasn't like this when I wrote the plugin though, plus I needed the effect to work cross-browser.