On some versions of chrome, the placeholder text remains until you start typing. On some other versions of chrome and on firefox the placeholder text disappears on focus.
This leads to some odd situations, for example:
- Hit "Sign up"
- Dialog appears, focus shifts to email field
- On firefox this causes the placeholder text to disappear, so you never actually get to see what you should be typing in the first entry field.
In general, I am not sure you can rely on placeholder text for prompting the user. Does it make sense to revert to labels or are there other ideas?