 <p>If you use the <a href="http://view.jquerymobile.com/master/demos/filterable/" rel="nofollow">filterable widget</a> on a table, the widget will filter <strong>table rows</strong>, so to make it work with any kind of table cell content (text, input) you should use the <code>**data-filtertext**</code>-attribute and set the text to be queried on the table row like so:</p> <pre><code>&lt;tr data-filtertext="foo_from_cell_1, bar_from_cell_2, baz_from_cell_3..."&gt; &lt;td&gt;foo&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;bar&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;&lt;input type="text" value="baz"/&gt;&lt;/td&gt; &lt;/tr&gt; </code></pre> <p>This way it will work. </p> <p>Also check the example provided in the JQM <a href="http://view.jquerymobile.com/master/demos/filterable/" rel="nofollow">demos</a></p>