Firefox and the Firebug extension have been my companion tools for web development for quite a time now. I’ve no serious complains about them, they really helped me a lot. But an alternative is just around the corner and I’m really enjoying it. I really like Safari, but the lack of a proper web development helper life Firebug have kept me away from using it more often. But recently the Web Inspector of Webkit (the engine behind Safari) has really been improved and it’s starting to kick Firebug’s ass.

Don’t take my word for it. Just try it yourself. Here’s how:

1. Download  a nightly build of Webkit and install it on your machine (don’t worry, it won’t replace your Safari app, it’s a separate app).

2. Launch Terminal and type this on your command line: defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

Update: Thanks to Maciej Stachowiak for pointing out the easier way to access the Web Inspector: Just open the Webkit preference menu, go to the Advanced tab and check the “Show Develop menu in menu bar”.

Turn on the Develop Menu in Webkit

3. Open Webkit and load a webpage.

4. Right Click anywhere and choose Inspect Element and voilá…

Web Inspector