$("input[id=transl1]").attr("placeholder","Start your search here");

Is there an advantage to using "input[id=transl1]" over "#transl1" ? I've never seen a selector written that way when looking for something by id. A couple of efficiency points: If you have jQuery which makes multiple calls to the same element, you shouldn't query for that element more than once. Set a variable: var transl1 = $("#transl1"); ...and then re-use it: transl1.attr("value","Start your search here"); Second, there's no reason to add an onfocus attribute when you can add an event handler. And really we don't need to set a variable after all because we can simply chain everything: $(document).ready(function(){ $("#transl1").val("Start your search here") .on("focus",function(){ if(this.value == 'Start your search here'){ this.value = ''; } }) .on("blur",function(){ if(this.value==''){ this.value = 'Start your search here'; } }); }); -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org