I’ve often said that I have no idea how I developed web sites before the Firebug extension for Firefox came along. I think it’s the single tool that I use the most.

It’s also the reason that I’m still using Firefox for my development browser, even though Chrome is now faster and my browser of choice for casual browsing.

Well, I came across Firebug Lite today and it’s the first time I’ve been really excited about a utility in quite a while. Firebug Lite is, as the name suggests, a “lite” version of Firebug – but running as a bookmarklet or local JavaScript rather than installed into the browser itself, meaning it can run on any browser that can execute the script. That includes Chrome, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer – including our old friend IE6. Now that’s something.

Firebug Lite doesn’t have all the features of the full package, understandably – no JavaScript debugger, or HTTP inspector – so it’s unlikely to replace the browser-based version anytime soon. But it does have real time inspection and modification of attributes, which should make browser debugging one hell of a lot easier.

Check it out – Firebug Lite