Question: I was intrigued by this statement by [@DanWilson](http://twitter.com/DanWIlson) on Twitter:

> 
> All Web Developers: Never Ever Ever
>  put anything after the password box
>  and before submit button on a form.
>  Tab MUST go directly to submit.
> 
> 
> 

When I asked for clarification, he added:

> 
> because the UI pattern is Username TAB Password TAB Enter Key.
> 
> 
> 

Can anyone point me to evidence that corroborates or contradicts that claim, even if it's anecdotal?

Answer: 
The best tab situation and common situations is:

* input: **email**
* input: **password**
* checkbox: keep me **logged** in *(sometimes this is omitted)*
* button: **submit** (note how you can use the spacebar, faster than enter in some situations)

Proofs:

* Google (unified login)
* Yahoo (unified login, includes Flickr, Delicious)
* Twitter (note also how the visual flow differs from the tab flow to be consistent!)
* Facebook (ibidem)
* Baidu
* Wikipedia
* LinkedIn
* Craiglist
* MySpace
* IMDB

Notable breakers:

* MSN
* eBay

So, with those sites we are including probably most of the world's web users and they are all aligned in the behaviour I've described.
It is irrelevant to respond "I don't use this pattern". Whether or not the pattern is THE dominant one (and your sample-size-one doesn't show this), if it's a significant pattern then it should be respected. Maybe only 10% of users press a tab before enter, but you don't want to piss off 10% of your users for something as simple to fix as this.