diff --git a/wikipedia.py b/wikipedia.py
index 663d3885eb..22ed4e3e1b 100644
--- a/wikipedia.py
+++ b/wikipedia.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ def mw_search(server, query, num):
     search_url = ('http://%s/w/api.php?format=json&action=query'
                   '&list=search&srlimit=%d&srprop=timestamp&srwhat=text'
                   '&srsearch=') % (server, num)
-    search_url += query.encode('utf-8')
+    search_url += query
     query = json.loads(web.get(search_url))
     if 'query' in query:
         query = query['query']['search']
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ def mw_snippet(server, query):
     snippet_url = ('https://'+server+'/w/api.php?format=json'
                    '&action=query&prop=extracts&exintro&explaintext'
                    '&exchars=300&redirects&titles=')
-    snippet_url += query.encode('utf-8')
+    snippet_url += query
     snippet = json.loads(web.get(snippet_url))
     snippet = snippet['query']['pages']