diff --git a/README b/README
index eb1fb8cd70..51a8e91cc5 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ released Aug 26 2009. Notable changes this version:
 - Better error handling in Twitter posting.
 - Show oEmbed data for XHTML files as well as plain HTML.
 - Updated bug database link in README.
-- require HTML tidy extension.
 - add support for HTTP Basic Auth in PHP CGI or FastCGI (e.g. GoDaddy).
 - autofocus input to selected entry elements depending on page.
 - updated layout for filter-by-tag form.
@@ -179,7 +178,6 @@ Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions:
 - GD. For scaling down avatar images.
 - mbstring. For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings.
 - gettext. For multiple languages. Default on many PHP installs.
-- tidy. Used to clean up HTML/URLs for the URL shortener to consume.
 
 For some functionality, you will also need the following extensions:
 
diff --git a/install.php b/install.php
index e7f7cf3187..1c62bb2b21 100644
--- a/install.php
+++ b/install.php
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ function checkPrereqs()
     }
 
     $reqs = array('gd', 'curl',
-                  'xmlwriter', 'mbstring','tidy');
+                  'xmlwriter', 'mbstring', 'xml', 'dom', 'simplexml');
 
     foreach ($reqs as $req) {
         if (!checkExtension($req)) {
diff --git a/plugins/LilUrl/LilUrlPlugin.php b/plugins/LilUrl/LilUrlPlugin.php
index e906751e84..4a6f1cdc79 100644
--- a/plugins/LilUrl/LilUrlPlugin.php
+++ b/plugins/LilUrl/LilUrlPlugin.php
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class LilUrlPlugin extends UrlShortenerPlugin
         if (!isset($y->body)) return;
         $x = $y->body->p[0]->a->attributes();
         if (isset($x['href'])) {
-            return $x['href'];
+            return strval($x['href']);
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugins/PtitUrl/PtitUrlPlugin.php b/plugins/PtitUrl/PtitUrlPlugin.php
index ef453e96d8..76a438dd5e 100644
--- a/plugins/PtitUrl/PtitUrlPlugin.php
+++ b/plugins/PtitUrl/PtitUrlPlugin.php
@@ -47,11 +47,14 @@ class PtitUrlPlugin extends UrlShortenerPlugin
     {
         $response = $this->http_get(sprintf($this->serviceUrl,urlencode($url)));
         if (!$response) return;
-        $response = $this->tidy($response);
-        $y = @simplexml_load_string($response);
+        $dom = new DOMDocument();
+        @$dom->loadHTML($response);
+        $y = @simplexml_import_dom($dom);
         if (!isset($y->body)) return;
         $xml = $y->body->center->table->tr->td->pre->a->attributes();
-        if (isset($xml['href'])) return $xml['href'];
+        if (isset($xml['href'])) {
+            return strval($xml['href']);
+        }
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/plugins/TightUrl/TightUrlPlugin.php b/plugins/TightUrl/TightUrlPlugin.php
index 56414c8c8d..6ced9afdc5 100644
--- a/plugins/TightUrl/TightUrlPlugin.php
+++ b/plugins/TightUrl/TightUrlPlugin.php
@@ -48,10 +48,13 @@ class TightUrlPlugin extends UrlShortenerPlugin
     {
         $response = $this->http_get(sprintf($this->serviceUrl,urlencode($url)));
         if (!$response) return;
-        $response = $this->tidy($response);
-        $y = @simplexml_load_string($response);
+        $dom = new DOMDocument();
+        @$dom->loadHTML($response);
+        $y = @simplexml_import_dom($dom);
         if (!isset($y->body)) return;
         $xml = $y->body->p[0]->code[0]->a->attributes();
-        if (isset($xml['href'])) return $xml['href'];
+        if (isset($xml['href'])) {
+            return strval($xml['href']);
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/plugins/UrlShortener/UrlShortenerPlugin.php b/plugins/UrlShortener/UrlShortenerPlugin.php
index 37206aa896..027624b7ae 100644
--- a/plugins/UrlShortener/UrlShortenerPlugin.php
+++ b/plugins/UrlShortener/UrlShortenerPlugin.php
@@ -68,14 +68,6 @@ abstract class UrlShortenerPlugin extends Plugin
         return $response->getBody();
     }
 
-    protected function tidy($response) {
-        $response = str_replace(' ', ' ', $response);
-        $config = array('output-xhtml' => true);
-        $tidy = new tidy;
-        $tidy->parseString($response, $config, 'utf8');
-        $tidy->cleanRepair();
-        return (string)$tidy;
-    }
     //------------Below are the methods that connect StatusNet to the implementing Url Shortener plugin------------\\
 
     function onInitializePlugin(){