Yellow fade effect with JQuery

This function is part of jQuery effects.core.js :

$("#box").effect("highlight", {}, 1500);

As Steerpike pointed out in the comments, effects.core.js and effects.highlight.js need to be included in order to use this.

I loved Sterling Nichols answer, since it was lightweight and didn't require a plugin. However, I discovered it didn't work with floating elements (i.e. such as when the element is "float:right"). So I re-wrote the code to display the highlight properly no matter how the element is positioned on the page:

jQuery.fn.highlight = function () {
    $(this).each(function () {
        var el = $(this);
        $("<div/>")
        .width(el.outerWidth())
        .height(el.outerHeight())
        .css({
            "position": "absolute",
            "left": el.offset().left,
            "top": el.offset().top,
            "background-color": "#ffff99",
            "opacity": ".7",
            "z-index": "9999999"
        }).appendTo('body').fadeOut(1000).queue(function () { $(this).remove(); });
    });
}

Optional:
Use the following code if you also want to match the border-radius of the element:

jQuery.fn.highlight = function () {
    $(this).each(function () {
        var el = $(this);
        $("<div/>")
        .width(el.outerWidth())
        .height(el.outerHeight())
        .css({
            "position": "absolute",
            "left": el.offset().left,
            "top": el.offset().top,
            "background-color": "#ffff99",
            "opacity": ".7",
            "z-index": "9999999",
            "border-top-left-radius": parseInt(el.css("borderTopLeftRadius"), 10),
            "border-top-right-radius": parseInt(el.css("borderTopRightRadius"), 10),
            "border-bottom-left-radius": parseInt(el.css("borderBottomLeftRadius"), 10),
            "border-bottom-right-radius": parseInt(el.css("borderBottomRightRadius"), 10)
        }).appendTo('body').fadeOut(1000).queue(function () { $(this).remove(); });
    });
}

The jQuery effects library adds quite a bit of unneeded overhead to your app. You can accomplish the same thing with jQuery only. http://jsfiddle.net/x2jrU/92/

jQuery.fn.highlight = function() {
   $(this).each(function() {
        var el = $(this);
        el.before("<div/>")
        el.prev()
            .width(el.width())
            .height(el.height())
            .css({
                "position": "absolute",
                "background-color": "#ffff99",
                "opacity": ".9"   
            })
            .fadeOut(500);
    });
}

$("#target").highlight();