HTML 5 placeholder attribute substitute

[cookiemonster]

I was just wondering if there are any decent substitutes for the new placeholder attribute in HTML 5.
I tried it out and now I'm addicted to it :P but I'm not quite ready to make the switch to HTML 5.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Fotiman]

For anyone who doesn't know what the placeholder attribute is, it's defined in the HTML 5 Working Draft [w3.org].
Note, that document states:

For a longer hint or other advisory text, the title attribute is more appropriate.

So perhaps using the title attribute would be the appropriate substitution.