the hint "filter table by names" in the fast filter box doesn't delete if you enter the box in the German language:
"Tabellen nach Namen filtern" stays in the box and if you paste something there with the middle mouse button is lands in between those letters.
in English it works correctly.
tested in Firefox 13 on Ubuntu
solution:
The placeholder attribute:
http://www.w3.org/TR/html5-author/common-input-element-attributes.html#the-placeholder-attribute
Which phpMyAdmin version are you using?
3.4.5deb1
The phpMyAdmin version you are using is not very recent. Could you try and reproduce this problem on http://demo.phpmyadmin.net (preferably the latest development version)