There is a Search field with the magnification-lens and a greyed out \"search\" keyword at the top right corner of stackoverflow.com web site:
QLineEdit
, and set it frameless by QLineEdit::setFrame
QLabel
with background color in white (by stylesheet) and a iconQLineEdit::setPlaceholderText
Check this thread: "Can QLineEdit do this?"
And the related python code: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~henning-schroeder/%2Bjunk/qtwidgets/annotate/head:/qtwidgets/lineedit.py
Or
"How to do - inside in QLineEdit insert the button.[pyqt4]"
Basically customized a QLineEdit
by painting a widget(label, button or even combobox) onto it. Then reset the margin, cursor, padding and the paint event. No magics!