diff --git a/History.txt b/History.txt
index 0d9900c..c6513a6 100644
--- a/History.txt
+++ b/History.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 * Bug fixes
- 
+
+  * Make "should contain" ignore extra whitespace when doing string comparisons (Noah Davis)
   * Make selenium matchers handle negative match more consistently with positive match (Luke Melia)
    
 == 0.6.0 / 2009-11-28
diff --git a/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_content.rb b/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_content.rb
index c3b6f33..24827ca 100644
--- a/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_content.rb
+++ b/lib/webrat/core/matchers/have_content.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ module Webrat
 
         case @content
         when String
-          @element.include?(@content)
+          @element.gsub(/\s+/, ' ').include?(@content)
         when Regexp
           @element.match(@content)
         end
diff --git a/spec/public/matchers/contain_spec.rb b/spec/public/matchers/contain_spec.rb
index e0677ac..40017fb 100644
--- a/spec/public/matchers/contain_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/public/matchers/contain_spec.rb
@@ -3,21 +3,6 @@ require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../../spec_helper")
 describe "contain" do
   include Webrat::Matchers
 
-  before(:each) do
-    @body = <<-HTML
-      <div id='main'>
-        <div class='inner'>hello, world!</div>
-        <h2>Welcome "Bryan"</h2>
-        <h3>Welcome 'Bryan'</h3>
-        <h4>Welcome 'Bryan"</h4>
-        <ul>
-          <li>First</li>
-          <li>Second</li>
-        </ul>
-      </div>
-    HTML
-  end
-
   before(:each) do
     @body = <<-EOF
       <div id='main'>
@@ -34,6 +19,14 @@ describe "contain" do
     it "should call element#matches? when the argument is a regular expression" do
       @body.should contain(/hello, world/)
     end
+    
+    it "should treat newlines as spaces" do
+      "<div>it takes\ndifferent strokes</div>".should contain("it takes different strokes")
+    end
+    
+    it "should multiple spaces as a single space" do
+      "<div>it takes  different strokes</div>".should contain("it takes different strokes")
+    end
   end
 
   describe "asserts for contains," do