[Sigia-l] "help text" in input fields - bad?

[Jayson Elliot]

Does anyone have research to point to regarding the practice of placing
instructional text in a field that is meant for user input?

For example, on a site like http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ you see "Google
custom search" inside the search field; or http://www.adobe.com/ writes
"Search Adobe.com" inside theirs.

I have read articles stating that this can depress overall usage of an input
field, as some users become "blind" to the field if it is not empty, but
can't find any now that I need them.

Also, what about the use of colored input fields? Do non-white text boxes
perform less well than standard white HTML input fields?