How to change the light grey text that many web sites seem to use these days? [duplicate]

Of late, I've noticed that many web sites seem to be using light grey text for many sections of their sites. Some such sections include - the text (link, usually) that shows in the status bar at the bottom of the browser when you hover the mouse over a link on their page, the indicator text in form fields to be filled in (e.g. the word "email" in the email address field), and many other elements on the page.

That light grey makes it much less readable.

Not sure whether is a new trend, or something to do with my browser settings (I haven't changed them lately, AFAIK), or Google Chrome, which is my browser. This is on Windows 7 running on a Dell Vostro laptop. I added the info about the laptop because I suspect the problem may even be due to my hardware settings, since I found the default brightness to be too high after I bought it, and changed it via Control Panel.

Would like to know what are some of the things I can check or change to solve this.

Thanks.

If you have trouble viewing grayed out text you could try extensions for chrome that convert the page into high contrast scheme which would make it easier to read the text. You could try High Contrast or Hacker Vision.
Though these extensions might radically change your viewing experience you should get accustomed to it fairly quickly, also they are easier on the eyes.