According to the w3 XHTML specification, the label attribute specifies a shorter label for the option. However (using the try-it tool with FF3.5), I can't see any effect. Hence my question: what does this attribute really do?
EDIT
It seems that it overrides the label used in the dropdown list. The contents of the option are (as far as I know) only used as the default for the value. Does this (in IE7+) make the following two declarations equivalent?
<option label="Volvo">Volvo (Latin for 'I roll')</option>
and
<option label="Volvo" value="Volvo (Latin for 'I roll')">Whatever....</option>