When css3 arrived, one of the goodies that I found was, the inclusion of Drop Shadow effect, namely **Box Shadow **and Text Shadow.

Here I present a cross browser utility css class which can be used for a drop shadow effect, without any image.

.shadow {
      /* For IE 8 */
   -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#000000')";
   /* For IE 5.5 - 7 */
   filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(Strength=4, Direction=135, Color='#000000');
   -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #000;
   -webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #000;
   box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #000;
}

For cross browser text shadow effect ,I found a nice article here.

* default setup that everything sees */
.shadow {
 /* needed for Internet explorer */
 height: 1em;
 filter: Shadow(Color=#666666,
                Direction=135,
                Strength=5);

 /* Needed for Gecko */
 line-height: 2em;
 white-space: nowrap;
}

/*
* used by browsers which know about
* :before to create the shadow
*/
.shadow:before {
 display: block;
 margin: 0 0 -2.12em 0.15em;
 padding: 0;
 color: #666666;
}

#shadow\_1:before {
 content: 'In shadow';
}
#second\_2:before {
 content: 'Happy Shadowing!';
}

/*\*/
html*.shadow {

 [color:red;/* required by Safari
             * so that [] is correctly
             * begun. associated with
             * the property, yet hiding
             * it. Seen by IE6 */

   /*
    * seen by IE6 and Safari, but hidden
    * from Gecko
    */
   text-shadow: #666666 5px 5px 5px;

 ]color:auto; /* resets color for IE6 */
}/**/

/*
* end hack using dummy attribute selector
* for IE5 mac
*/
.dummyend[id]{clear: both;}

/*\*/
html*.shadow:before {

 [color:red;/* required by Safari.
               seen by IE6 */

   /*
    * seen by IE6 and Safari, but hidden
    * from Gecko
    */
   display: none;

 ]color:auto; /* resets color for IE6 */
}/**/

/*
* end hack using dummy attribute selector
* for IE5 mac
*/
.dummyend[id]{clear: both;}

Hope this helps.