Here's a quick way to modify the Drupal search form using a few lines of jQuery. Normally, I would implement a form_alter hook, but let's start simple in this example:
<?php
$(document).ready(function(){
// set the text of the search button
$('div#search input#edit-submit').attr('value','GO');
// add some default verbiage to the text input and have it disappear when the user focuses on it
var searchString = 'Search...';
$('div#search input#edit-search-theme-form-keys').val(searchString);
$('div#search input#edit-search-theme-form-keys').focus(function(){
if ($(this).val()==searchString) $(this).val('');
});
});
?>Update: Here's an updated/alternative version of this code snippet which also has a blur() event:
<?php
$(document).ready(function(){
// set the text of the search button
$('form#search-block-form input#edit-submit').attr('value','GO');
// add some default verbiage to the text input and have it disappear when the user focuses on it
var searchString = 'Search...';
// set input value (text)
$('form#search-block-form input#edit-search-block-form-keys').val(searchString);
// focus
$('form#search-block-form input#edit-search-block-form-keys').focus(function(){
if ($(this).val()==searchString) $(this).val('');
});
// blur
$('form#search-block-form input#edit-search-block-form-keys').blur(function(){
if ($(this).val()=='') $(this).val(searchString);
});
});
?>