[enh] py3 compatibility

70 files changed, 178 insertions, 195 deletions

diff --git a/searx/engines/1337x.py b/searx/engines/1337x.py
index c6bc3cb6d..0de04bd95 100644
--- a/searx/engines/1337x.py
+++ b/searx/engines/1337x.py
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-from urllib import quote
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from searx.utils import get_torrent_size
-from urlparse import urljoin
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urljoin
 
 url = 'https://1337x.to/'
 search_url = url + 'search/{search_term}/{pageno}/'
diff --git a/searx/engines/__init__.py b/searx/engines/__init__.py
index 77184a282..023ec409a 100644
--- a/searx/engines/__init__.py
+++ b/searx/engines/__init__.py
@@ -72,12 +72,11 @@ def load_engine(engine_data):
             if engine_data['categories'] == 'none':
                 engine.categories = []
             else:
-                engine.categories = map(
-                    str.strip, engine_data['categories'].split(','))
+                engine.categories = list(map(str.strip, engine_data['categories'].split(',')))
             continue
         setattr(engine, param_name, engine_data[param_name])
 
-    for arg_name, arg_value in engine_default_args.iteritems():
+    for arg_name, arg_value in engine_default_args.items():
         if not hasattr(engine, arg_name):
             setattr(engine, arg_name, arg_value)
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/archlinux.py b/searx/engines/archlinux.py
index dca825790..cad06f8c6 100644
--- a/searx/engines/archlinux.py
+++ b/searx/engines/archlinux.py
@@ -11,10 +11,9 @@
  @parse        url, title
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['it']
diff --git a/searx/engines/base.py b/searx/engines/base.py
index a552453ce..ff006a3bc 100755
--- a/searx/engines/base.py
+++ b/searx/engines/base.py
@@ -14,10 +14,10 @@
 """
 
 from lxml import etree
-from urllib import urlencode
-from searx.utils import searx_useragent
 from datetime import datetime
 import re
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
+from searx.utils import searx_useragent
 
 
 categories = ['science']
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ def request(query, params):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    search_results = etree.XML(resp.content)
+    search_results = etree.XML(resp.text)
 
     for entry in search_results.xpath('./result/doc'):
         content = "No description available"
diff --git a/searx/engines/bing.py b/searx/engines/bing.py
index 4e7ead82d..052d567ea 100644
--- a/searx/engines/bing.py
+++ b/searx/engines/bing.py
@@ -13,9 +13,9 @@
  @todo        publishedDate
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']
diff --git a/searx/engines/bing_images.py b/searx/engines/bing_images.py
index 97f6dca37..e79740e50 100644
--- a/searx/engines/bing_images.py
+++ b/searx/engines/bing_images.py
@@ -15,11 +15,11 @@
               limited response to 10 images
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from json import loads
 import re
 from searx.engines.bing import _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['images']
diff --git a/searx/engines/bing_news.py b/searx/engines/bing_news.py
index 765bcd38e..8e3cc517e 100644
--- a/searx/engines/bing_news.py
+++ b/searx/engines/bing_news.py
@@ -11,13 +11,12 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate, thumbnail
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import urlparse, parse_qsl
 from datetime import datetime
 from dateutil import parser
 from lxml import etree
 from searx.utils import list_get
 from searx.engines.bing import _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urlparse, parse_qsl
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['news']
@@ -86,7 +85,7 @@ def request(query, params):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    rss = etree.fromstring(resp.content)
+    rss = etree.fromstring(resp.text)
 
     ns = rss.nsmap
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/blekko_images.py b/searx/engines/blekko_images.py
index c0664f390..f71645634 100644
--- a/searx/engines/blekko_images.py
+++ b/searx/engines/blekko_images.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['images']
diff --git a/searx/engines/btdigg.py b/searx/engines/btdigg.py
index 33c8355de..40438673f 100644
--- a/searx/engines/btdigg.py
+++ b/searx/engines/btdigg.py
@@ -10,11 +10,10 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, seed, leech, magnetlink
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import quote
 from lxml import html
 from operator import itemgetter
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urljoin
 from searx.utils import get_torrent_size
 
 # engine dependent config
@@ -38,7 +37,7 @@ def request(query, params):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    dom = html.fromstring(resp.content)
+    dom = html.fromstring(resp.text)
 
     search_res = dom.xpath('//div[@id="search_res"]/table/tr')
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/currency_convert.py b/searx/engines/currency_convert.py
index bc839cfb5..1218d4849 100644
--- a/searx/engines/currency_convert.py
+++ b/searx/engines/currency_convert.py
@@ -1,21 +1,25 @@
-from datetime import datetime
+import json
 import re
 import os
-import json
+import sys
 import unicodedata
 
+from datetime import datetime
+
+if sys.version_info[0] == 3:
+    unicode = str
 
 categories = []
 url = 'https://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?e=.csv&f=sl1d1t1&s={query}=X'
 weight = 100
 
-parser_re = re.compile(u'.*?(\\d+(?:\\.\\d+)?) ([^.0-9]+) (?:in|to) ([^.0-9]+)', re.I)  # noqa
+parser_re = re.compile(b'.*?(\\d+(?:\\.\\d+)?) ([^.0-9]+) (?:in|to) ([^.0-9]+)', re.I)
 
 db = 1
 
 
 def normalize_name(name):
-    name = name.lower().replace('-', ' ').rstrip('s')
+    name = name.decode('utf-8').lower().replace('-', ' ').rstrip('s')
     name = re.sub(' +', ' ', name)
     return unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', name).lower()
 
@@ -35,7 +39,7 @@ def iso4217_to_name(iso4217, language):
 
 
 def request(query, params):
-    m = parser_re.match(unicode(query, 'utf8'))
+    m = parser_re.match(query)
     if not m:
         # wrong query
         return params
diff --git a/searx/engines/dailymotion.py b/searx/engines/dailymotion.py
index 8c69aafe0..fad7e596c 100644
--- a/searx/engines/dailymotion.py
+++ b/searx/engines/dailymotion.py
@@ -12,10 +12,9 @@
  @todo        set content-parameter with correct data
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
 from datetime import datetime
-from requests import get
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos']
diff --git a/searx/engines/deezer.py b/searx/engines/deezer.py
index 3db1af3d2..af63478fb 100644
--- a/searx/engines/deezer.py
+++ b/searx/engines/deezer.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['music']
@@ -30,8 +30,7 @@ embedded_url = '<iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true"
 def request(query, params):
     offset = (params['pageno'] - 1) * 25
 
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}),
-                                      offset=offset)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}), offset=offset)
 
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/deviantart.py b/searx/engines/deviantart.py
index a24b75b8a..bb85c6dc5 100644
--- a/searx/engines/deviantart.py
+++ b/searx/engines/deviantart.py
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@
  @todo        rewrite to api
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 import re
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['images']
diff --git a/searx/engines/dictzone.py b/searx/engines/dictzone.py
index 20a9a8980..7c3478629 100644
--- a/searx/engines/dictzone.py
+++ b/searx/engines/dictzone.py
@@ -10,20 +10,20 @@
 """
 
 import re
-from urlparse import urljoin
 from lxml import html
 from searx.utils import is_valid_lang
+from searx.url_utils import urljoin
 
 categories = ['general']
 url = u'http://dictzone.com/{from_lang}-{to_lang}-dictionary/{query}'
 weight = 100
 
-parser_re = re.compile(u'.*?([a-z]+)-([a-z]+) ([^ ]+)$', re.I)
+parser_re = re.compile(b'.*?([a-z]+)-([a-z]+) ([^ ]+)$', re.I)
 results_xpath = './/table[@id="r"]/tr'
 
 
 def request(query, params):
-    m = parser_re.match(unicode(query, 'utf8'))
+    m = parser_re.match(query)
     if not m:
         return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/digbt.py b/searx/engines/digbt.py
index b55d7747a..ff2f94593 100644
--- a/searx/engines/digbt.py
+++ b/searx/engines/digbt.py
@@ -10,10 +10,14 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, magnetlink
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
+from sys import version_info
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from searx.utils import get_torrent_size
+from searx.url_utils import urljoin
+
+if version_info[0] == 3:
+    unicode = str
 
 categories = ['videos', 'music', 'files']
 paging = True
@@ -31,7 +35,7 @@ def request(query, params):
 
 
 def response(resp):
-    dom = html.fromstring(resp.content)
+    dom = html.fromstring(resp.text)
     search_res = dom.xpath('.//td[@class="x-item"]')
 
     if not search_res:
diff --git a/searx/engines/digg.py b/searx/engines/digg.py
index 238b466a0..606747a4d 100644
--- a/searx/engines/digg.py
+++ b/searx/engines/digg.py
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate, thumbnail
 """
 
-from urllib import quote_plus
+from dateutil import parser
 from json import loads
 from lxml import html
-from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import quote_plus
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['news', 'social media']
diff --git a/searx/engines/doku.py b/searx/engines/doku.py
index 93867fd0d..a391be444 100644
--- a/searx/engines/doku.py
+++ b/searx/engines/doku.py
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
 # @stable      yes
 # @parse       (general)    url, title, content
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml.html import fromstring
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']  # TODO , 'images', 'music', 'videos', 'files'
diff --git a/searx/engines/duckduckgo.py b/searx/engines/duckduckgo.py
index 1ae484123..1872ab7d4 100644
--- a/searx/engines/duckduckgo.py
+++ b/searx/engines/duckduckgo.py
@@ -13,11 +13,11 @@
  @todo        rewrite to api
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml.html import fromstring
 from requests import get
 from json import loads
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']
diff --git a/searx/engines/duckduckgo_definitions.py b/searx/engines/duckduckgo_definitions.py
index dd3f12e1e..21c6a6578 100644
--- a/searx/engines/duckduckgo_definitions.py
+++ b/searx/engines/duckduckgo_definitions.py
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 import json
-from urllib import urlencode
-from re import compile, sub
 from lxml import html
-from searx.utils import html_to_text
+from re import compile
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from searx.engines.duckduckgo import _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
+from searx.utils import html_to_text
 
 url = 'https://api.duckduckgo.com/'\
     + '?{query}&format=json&pretty=0&no_redirect=1&d=1'
diff --git a/searx/engines/faroo.py b/searx/engines/faroo.py
index 9fa244e77..e24d1b7dc 100644
--- a/searx/engines/faroo.py
+++ b/searx/engines/faroo.py
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate, img_src
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
 import datetime
 from searx.utils import searx_useragent
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general', 'news']
diff --git a/searx/engines/fdroid.py b/searx/engines/fdroid.py
index 6d470a4eb..a6b01a8ee 100644
--- a/searx/engines/fdroid.py
+++ b/searx/engines/fdroid.py
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
  @parse        url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
-from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from lxml import html
+from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['files']
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ search_url = base_url + 'repository/browse/?{query}'
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    query = urlencode({'fdfilter': query,
-                       'fdpage': params['pageno']})
+    query = urlencode({'fdfilter': query, 'fdpage': params['pageno']})
     params['url'] = search_url.format(query=query)
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/filecrop.py b/searx/engines/filecrop.py
index 71665bd4e..ed57a6bf3 100644
--- a/searx/engines/filecrop.py
+++ b/searx/engines/filecrop.py
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
-from urllib import urlencode
-from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
+
+try:
+    from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
+except:
+    from html.parser import HTMLParser
 
 url = 'http://www.filecrop.com/'
 search_url = url + '/search.php?{query}&size_i=0&size_f=100000000&engine_r=1&engine_d=1&engine_e=1&engine_4=1&engine_m=1&pos={index}'  # noqa
@@ -73,8 +77,7 @@ class FilecropResultParser(HTMLParser):
 
 def request(query, params):
     index = 1 + (params['pageno'] - 1) * 30
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'w': query}),
-                                      index=index)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'w': query}), index=index)
     return params
 
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/flickr.py b/searx/engines/flickr.py
index 5ce1160e9..de1769370 100644
--- a/searx/engines/flickr.py
+++ b/searx/engines/flickr.py
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
  More info on api-key : https://www.flickr.com/services/apps/create/
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 categories = ['images']
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/flickr_noapi.py b/searx/engines/flickr_noapi.py
index 3c0ec7b70..08f07f7ce 100644
--- a/searx/engines/flickr_noapi.py
+++ b/searx/engines/flickr_noapi.py
@@ -12,11 +12,11 @@
  @parse       url, title, thumbnail, img_src
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
 from time import time
 import re
 from searx.engines import logger
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 
 logger = logger.getChild('flickr-noapi')
diff --git a/searx/engines/framalibre.py b/searx/engines/framalibre.py
index e8d1d8aa7..f2eecdc73 100644
--- a/searx/engines/framalibre.py
+++ b/searx/engines/framalibre.py
@@ -10,12 +10,10 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, thumbnail, img_src
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
 from cgi import escape
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
-from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urljoin, urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['it']
diff --git a/searx/engines/frinkiac.py b/searx/engines/frinkiac.py
index a9383f862..a67b42dbe 100644
--- a/searx/engines/frinkiac.py
+++ b/searx/engines/frinkiac.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Frinkiac (Images)
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 categories = ['images']
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/gigablast.py b/searx/engines/gigablast.py
index 0c1d7f613..37933c69b 100644
--- a/searx/engines/gigablast.py
+++ b/searx/engines/gigablast.py
@@ -11,10 +11,9 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from random import randint
 from time import time
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml.html import fromstring
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']
diff --git a/searx/engines/github.py b/searx/engines/github.py
index 7adef3be9..eaa00da4f 100644
--- a/searx/engines/github.py
+++ b/searx/engines/github.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['it']
diff --git a/searx/engines/google.py b/searx/engines/google.py
index e14e9e702..934f5c29a 100644
--- a/searx/engines/google.py
+++ b/searx/engines/google.py
@@ -9,11 +9,10 @@
 # @parse       url, title, content, suggestion
 
 import re
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import urlparse, parse_qsl
 from lxml import html, etree
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text, extract_url
-from searx.search import logger
+from searx import logger
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urlparse, parse_qsl
 
 logger = logger.getChild('google engine')
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/google_images.py b/searx/engines/google_images.py
index 9a3c71c7e..9692f4b82 100644
--- a/searx/engines/google_images.py
+++ b/searx/engines/google_images.py
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@
 """
 
 from datetime import date, timedelta
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
 from lxml import html
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 
 # engine dependent config
diff --git a/searx/engines/google_news.py b/searx/engines/google_news.py
index 6b79ff5c8..7344b5289 100644
--- a/searx/engines/google_news.py
+++ b/searx/engines/google_news.py
@@ -11,9 +11,8 @@
 """
 
 from lxml import html
-from urllib import urlencode
-from json import loads
 from searx.engines.google import _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # search-url
 categories = ['news']
diff --git a/searx/engines/ina.py b/searx/engines/ina.py
index 86a39782b..37a05f099 100644
--- a/searx/engines/ina.py
+++ b/searx/engines/ina.py
@@ -12,11 +12,15 @@
 # @todo        embedded (needs some md5 from video page)
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
-from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
-from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
+
+try:
+    from HTMLParser import HTMLParser
+except:
+    from html.parser import HTMLParser
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos']
diff --git a/searx/engines/json_engine.py b/searx/engines/json_engine.py
index 4604c3cac..67d6a5a65 100644
--- a/searx/engines/json_engine.py
+++ b/searx/engines/json_engine.py
@@ -1,11 +1,16 @@
-from urllib import urlencode
-from json import loads
 from collections import Iterable
+from json import loads
+from sys import version_info
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
+
+if version_info[0] == 3:
+    unicode = str
 
 search_url = None
 url_query = None
 content_query = None
 title_query = None
+paging = False
 suggestion_query = ''
 results_query = ''
 
@@ -20,7 +25,7 @@ first_page_num = 1
 
 def iterate(iterable):
     if type(iterable) == dict:
-        it = iterable.iteritems()
+        it = iterable.items()
 
     else:
         it = enumerate(iterable)
diff --git a/searx/engines/kickass.py b/searx/engines/kickass.py
index 059fa2a66..5e897c96f 100644
--- a/searx/engines/kickass.py
+++ b/searx/engines/kickass.py
@@ -10,12 +10,11 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, seed, leech, magnetlink
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import quote
 from lxml import html
 from operator import itemgetter
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from searx.utils import get_torrent_size, convert_str_to_int
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos', 'music', 'files']
diff --git a/searx/engines/mediawiki.py b/searx/engines/mediawiki.py
index 93d98d3aa..5a70204b1 100644
--- a/searx/engines/mediawiki.py
+++ b/searx/engines/mediawiki.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 from json import loads
 from string import Formatter
-from urllib import urlencode, quote
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, quote
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']
diff --git a/searx/engines/mixcloud.py b/searx/engines/mixcloud.py
index 312d297eb..470c007ea 100644
--- a/searx/engines/mixcloud.py
+++ b/searx/engines/mixcloud.py
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['music']
diff --git a/searx/engines/nyaa.py b/searx/engines/nyaa.py
index 4ca5b3171..272c712c4 100644
--- a/searx/engines/nyaa.py
+++ b/searx/engines/nyaa.py
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
  @parse        url, title, content, seed, leech, torrentfile
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['files', 'images', 'videos', 'music']
diff --git a/searx/engines/openstreetmap.py b/searx/engines/openstreetmap.py
index 01ca7d42d..733ba6203 100644
--- a/searx/engines/openstreetmap.py
+++ b/searx/engines/openstreetmap.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from searx.utils import searx_useragent
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['map']
@@ -27,9 +26,6 @@ result_base_url = 'https://openstreetmap.org/{osm_type}/{osm_id}'
 def request(query, params):
     params['url'] = base_url + search_string.format(query=query)
 
-    # using searx User-Agent
-    params['headers']['User-Agent'] = searx_useragent()
-
     return params
 
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/photon.py b/searx/engines/photon.py
index a029bbfef..15236f680 100644
--- a/searx/engines/photon.py
+++ b/searx/engines/photon.py
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@
  @parse       url, title
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
 from searx.utils import searx_useragent
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['map']
diff --git a/searx/engines/piratebay.py b/searx/engines/piratebay.py
index ca21a3bb2..a5af8d824 100644
--- a/searx/engines/piratebay.py
+++ b/searx/engines/piratebay.py
@@ -8,11 +8,10 @@
 # @stable      yes (HTML can change)
 # @parse       url, title, content, seed, leech, magnetlink
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import quote
 from lxml import html
 from operator import itemgetter
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos', 'music', 'files']
diff --git a/searx/engines/qwant.py b/searx/engines/qwant.py
index 1fc4630fa..cb097eb38 100644
--- a/searx/engines/qwant.py
+++ b/searx/engines/qwant.py
@@ -12,9 +12,8 @@
 
 from datetime import datetime
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
-
 from searx.utils import html_to_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = None
diff --git a/searx/engines/reddit.py b/searx/engines/reddit.py
index b29792a3a..d19724906 100644
--- a/searx/engines/reddit.py
+++ b/searx/engines/reddit.py
@@ -11,9 +11,8 @@
 """
 
 import json
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import urlparse, urljoin
 from datetime import datetime
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin, urlparse
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general', 'images', 'news', 'social media']
@@ -26,8 +25,7 @@ search_url = base_url + 'search.json?{query}'
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    query = urlencode({'q': query,
-                       'limit': page_size})
+    query = urlencode({'q': query, 'limit': page_size})
     params['url'] = search_url.format(query=query)
 
     return params
diff --git a/searx/engines/scanr_structures.py b/searx/engines/scanr_structures.py
index ad78155ac..72fd2b3c9 100644
--- a/searx/engines/scanr_structures.py
+++ b/searx/engines/scanr_structures.py
@@ -10,9 +10,7 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, img_src
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads, dumps
-from dateutil import parser
 from searx.utils import html_to_text
 
 # engine dependent config
@@ -48,7 +46,7 @@ def response(resp):
     search_res = loads(resp.text)
 
     # return empty array if there are no results
-    if search_res.get('total') < 1:
+    if search_res.get('total', 0) < 1:
         return []
 
     # parse results
diff --git a/searx/engines/searchcode_code.py b/searx/engines/searchcode_code.py
index be7a6d385..789e8e7a9 100644
--- a/searx/engines/searchcode_code.py
+++ b/searx/engines/searchcode_code.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 
 # engine dependent config
@@ -31,8 +31,7 @@ code_endings = {'cs': 'c#',
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}),
-                                      pageno=params['pageno'] - 1)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}), pageno=params['pageno'] - 1)
 
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/searchcode_doc.py b/searx/engines/searchcode_doc.py
index 99e10be62..4b8e9a84a 100644
--- a/searx/engines/searchcode_doc.py
+++ b/searx/engines/searchcode_doc.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from json import loads
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['it']
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@ search_url = url + 'api/search_IV/?{query}&p={pageno}'
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}),
-                                      pageno=params['pageno'] - 1)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}), pageno=params['pageno'] - 1)
 
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/seedpeer.py b/searx/engines/seedpeer.py
index e1309a9b5..3770dacac 100644
--- a/searx/engines/seedpeer.py
+++ b/searx/engines/seedpeer.py
@@ -8,11 +8,9 @@
 # @stable      yes (HTML can change)
 # @parse       url, title, content, seed, leech, magnetlink
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import quote
 from lxml import html
 from operator import itemgetter
-from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urljoin
 
 
 url = 'http://www.seedpeer.eu/'
diff --git a/searx/engines/soundcloud.py b/searx/engines/soundcloud.py
index 62b03ac03..41b40da61 100644
--- a/searx/engines/soundcloud.py
+++ b/searx/engines/soundcloud.py
@@ -11,13 +11,17 @@
 """
 
 import re
-from StringIO import StringIO
 from json import loads
-from lxml import etree
-from urllib import urlencode, quote_plus
+from lxml import html
 from dateutil import parser
 from searx import logger
 from searx.poolrequests import get as http_get
+from searx.url_utils import quote_plus, urlencode
+
+try:
+    from cStringIO import StringIO
+except:
+    from io import StringIO
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['music']
@@ -36,14 +40,15 @@ embedded_url = '<iframe width="100%" height="166" ' +\
     'scrolling="no" frameborder="no" ' +\
     'data-src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url={uri}"></iframe>'
 
+cid_re = re.compile(r'client_id:"([^"]*)"', re.I | re.U)
+
 
 def get_client_id():
     response = http_get("https://soundcloud.com")
-    rx_namespace = {"re": "http://exslt.org/regular-expressions"}
 
     if response.ok:
-        tree = etree.parse(StringIO(response.content), etree.HTMLParser())
-        script_tags = tree.xpath("//script[re:match(@src, '(.*app.*js)')]", namespaces=rx_namespace)
+        tree = html.fromstring(response.content)
+        script_tags = tree.xpath("//script[contains(@src, '/assets/app')]")
         app_js_urls = [script_tag.get('src') for script_tag in script_tags if script_tag is not None]
 
         # extracts valid app_js urls from soundcloud.com content
@@ -51,7 +56,7 @@ def get_client_id():
             # gets app_js and searches for the clientid
             response = http_get(app_js_url)
             if response.ok:
-                cids = re.search(r'client_id:"([^"]*)"', response.content, re.M | re.I)
+                cids = cid_re.search(response.text)
                 if cids is not None and len(cids.groups()):
                     return cids.groups()[0]
     logger.warning("Unable to fetch guest client_id from SoundCloud, check parser!")
diff --git a/searx/engines/spotify.py b/searx/engines/spotify.py
index 249ba91ef..aed756be3 100644
--- a/searx/engines/spotify.py
+++ b/searx/engines/spotify.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['music']
@@ -29,8 +29,7 @@ embedded_url = '<iframe data-src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:{
 def request(query, params):
     offset = (params['pageno'] - 1) * 20
 
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}),
-                                      offset=offset)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}), offset=offset)
 
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/stackoverflow.py b/searx/engines/stackoverflow.py
index 5e7ab2901..25875aa15 100644
--- a/searx/engines/stackoverflow.py
+++ b/searx/engines/stackoverflow.py
@@ -10,10 +10,9 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['it']
@@ -31,8 +30,7 @@ content_xpath = './/div[@class="excerpt"]'
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}),
-                                      pageno=params['pageno'])
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'q': query}), pageno=params['pageno'])
 
     return params
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/startpage.py b/searx/engines/startpage.py
index 54aafdee5..314b7b9a8 100644
--- a/searx/engines/startpage.py
+++ b/searx/engines/startpage.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def request(query, params):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    dom = html.fromstring(resp.content)
+    dom = html.fromstring(resp.text)
 
     # parse results
     for result in dom.xpath(results_xpath):
diff --git a/searx/engines/subtitleseeker.py b/searx/engines/subtitleseeker.py
index 77b010c3f..2cbc991b3 100644
--- a/searx/engines/subtitleseeker.py
+++ b/searx/engines/subtitleseeker.py
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import quote_plus
 from lxml import html
 from searx.languages import language_codes
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import quote_plus
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos']
diff --git a/searx/engines/swisscows.py b/searx/engines/swisscows.py
index dd398857f..e9c13ca24 100644
--- a/searx/engines/swisscows.py
+++ b/searx/engines/swisscows.py
@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode, unquote
 import re
 from lxml.html import fromstring
+from searx.url_utils import unquote, urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general', 'images']
@@ -27,10 +27,10 @@ search_string = '?{query}&page={page}'
 supported_languages_url = base_url
 
 # regex
-regex_json = re.compile(r'initialData: {"Request":(.|\n)*},\s*environment')
-regex_json_remove_start = re.compile(r'^initialData:\s*')
-regex_json_remove_end = re.compile(r',\s*environment$')
-regex_img_url_remove_start = re.compile(r'^https?://i\.swisscows\.ch/\?link=')
+regex_json = re.compile(b'initialData: {"Request":(.|\n)*},\s*environment')
+regex_json_remove_start = re.compile(b'^initialData:\s*')
+regex_json_remove_end = re.compile(b',\s*environment$')
+regex_img_url_remove_start = re.compile(b'^https?://i\.swisscows\.ch/\?link=')
 
 
 # do search-request
@@ -45,10 +45,9 @@ def request(query, params):
         ui_language = params['language'].split('-')[0]
 
     search_path = search_string.format(
-        query=urlencode({'query': query,
-                         'uiLanguage': ui_language,
-                         'region': region}),
-        page=params['pageno'])
+        query=urlencode({'query': query, 'uiLanguage': ui_language, 'region': region}),
+        page=params['pageno']
+    )
 
     # image search query is something like 'image?{query}&page={page}'
     if params['category'] == 'images':
@@ -63,14 +62,14 @@ def request(query, params):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    json_regex = regex_json.search(resp.content)
+    json_regex = regex_json.search(resp.text)
 
     # check if results are returned
     if not json_regex:
         return []
 
-    json_raw = regex_json_remove_end.sub('', regex_json_remove_start.sub('', json_regex.group()))
-    json = loads(json_raw)
+    json_raw = regex_json_remove_end.sub(b'', regex_json_remove_start.sub(b'', json_regex.group()))
+    json = loads(json_raw.decode('utf-8'))
 
     # parse results
     for result in json['Results'].get('items', []):
@@ -78,7 +77,7 @@ def response(resp):
 
         # parse image results
         if result.get('ContentType', '').startswith('image'):
-            img_url = unquote(regex_img_url_remove_start.sub('', result['Url']))
+            img_url = unquote(regex_img_url_remove_start.sub(b'', result['Url'].encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8'))
 
             # append result
             results.append({'url': result['SourceUrl'],
@@ -100,7 +99,7 @@ def response(resp):
     # parse images
     for result in json.get('Images', []):
         # decode image url
-        img_url = unquote(regex_img_url_remove_start.sub('', result['Url']))
+        img_url = unquote(regex_img_url_remove_start.sub(b'', result['Url'].encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8'))
 
         # append result
         results.append({'url': result['SourceUrl'],
diff --git a/searx/engines/tokyotoshokan.py b/searx/engines/tokyotoshokan.py
index 52b2cbe07..9a6b5e57d 100644
--- a/searx/engines/tokyotoshokan.py
+++ b/searx/engines/tokyotoshokan.py
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@
 """
 
 import re
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from datetime import datetime
 from searx.engines.nyaa import int_or_zero, get_filesize_mul
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['files', 'videos', 'music']
@@ -28,8 +28,7 @@ search_url = base_url + 'search.php?{query}'
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    query = urlencode({'page': params['pageno'],
-                       'terms': query})
+    query = urlencode({'page': params['pageno'], 'terms': query})
     params['url'] = search_url.format(query=query)
     return params
 
@@ -50,7 +49,7 @@ def response(resp):
     size_re = re.compile(r'Size:\s*([\d.]+)(TB|GB|MB|B)', re.IGNORECASE)
 
     # processing the results, two rows at a time
-    for i in xrange(0, len(rows), 2):
+    for i in range(0, len(rows), 2):
         # parse the first row
         name_row = rows[i]
 
@@ -79,14 +78,14 @@ def response(resp):
                     groups = size_re.match(item).groups()
                     multiplier = get_filesize_mul(groups[1])
                     params['filesize'] = int(multiplier * float(groups[0]))
-                except Exception as e:
+                except:
                     pass
             elif item.startswith('Date:'):
                 try:
                     # Date: 2016-02-21 21:44 UTC
                     date = datetime.strptime(item, 'Date: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M UTC')
                     params['publishedDate'] = date
-                except Exception as e:
+                except:
                     pass
             elif item.startswith('Comment:'):
                 params['content'] = item
diff --git a/searx/engines/torrentz.py b/searx/engines/torrentz.py
index f9c832651..dda56fc22 100644
--- a/searx/engines/torrentz.py
+++ b/searx/engines/torrentz.py
@@ -12,11 +12,11 @@
 """
 
 import re
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
-from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from datetime import datetime
 from searx.engines.nyaa import int_or_zero, get_filesize_mul
+from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['files', 'videos', 'music']
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def response(resp):
             size_str = result.xpath('./dd/span[@class="s"]/text()')[0]
             size, suffix = size_str.split()
             params['filesize'] = int(size) * get_filesize_mul(suffix)
-        except Exception as e:
+        except:
             pass
 
         # does our link contain a valid SHA1 sum?
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def response(resp):
             # Fri, 25 Mar 2016 16:29:01
             date = datetime.strptime(date_str, '%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S')
             params['publishedDate'] = date
-        except Exception as e:
+        except:
             pass
 
         results.append(params)
diff --git a/searx/engines/translated.py b/searx/engines/translated.py
index e78db0d8e..5c7b17033 100644
--- a/searx/engines/translated.py
+++ b/searx/engines/translated.py
@@ -9,8 +9,12 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 import re
+from sys import version_info
 from searx.utils import is_valid_lang
 
+if version_info[0] == 3:
+    unicode = str
+
 categories = ['general']
 url = u'http://api.mymemory.translated.net/get?q={query}&langpair={from_lang}|{to_lang}{key}'
 web_url = u'http://mymemory.translated.net/en/{from_lang}/{to_lang}/{query}'
diff --git a/searx/engines/twitter.py b/searx/engines/twitter.py
index 6cca05f70..038cef47f 100644
--- a/searx/engines/twitter.py
+++ b/searx/engines/twitter.py
@@ -12,11 +12,10 @@
  @todo        publishedDate
 """
 
-from urlparse import urljoin
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
 from datetime import datetime
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['social media']
diff --git a/searx/engines/vimeo.py b/searx/engines/vimeo.py
index 5d5310544..1408be8df 100644
--- a/searx/engines/vimeo.py
+++ b/searx/engines/vimeo.py
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
 # @todo        set content-parameter with correct data
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos']
diff --git a/searx/engines/wikidata.py b/searx/engines/wikidata.py
index 3f849bc7d..be217463c 100644
--- a/searx/engines/wikidata.py
+++ b/searx/engines/wikidata.py
@@ -14,12 +14,11 @@
 from searx import logger
 from searx.poolrequests import get
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
-from searx.utils import format_date_by_locale
 from searx.engines.wikipedia import _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 from json import loads
 from lxml.html import fromstring
-from urllib import urlencode
 
 logger = logger.getChild('wikidata')
 result_count = 1
@@ -62,14 +61,13 @@ def request(query, params):
         language = 'en'
 
     params['url'] = url_search.format(
-        query=urlencode({'label': query,
-                        'language': language}))
+        query=urlencode({'label': query, 'language': language}))
     return params
 
 
 def response(resp):
     results = []
-    html = fromstring(resp.content)
+    html = fromstring(resp.text)
     wikidata_ids = html.xpath(wikidata_ids_xpath)
 
     language = resp.search_params['language'].split('-')[0]
@@ -78,10 +76,9 @@ def response(resp):
 
     # TODO: make requests asynchronous to avoid timeout when result_count > 1
     for wikidata_id in wikidata_ids[:result_count]:
-        url = url_detail.format(query=urlencode({'page': wikidata_id,
-                                                'uselang': language}))
+        url = url_detail.format(query=urlencode({'page': wikidata_id, 'uselang': language}))
         htmlresponse = get(url)
-        jsonresponse = loads(htmlresponse.content)
+        jsonresponse = loads(htmlresponse.text)
         results += getDetail(jsonresponse, wikidata_id, language, resp.search_params['language'])
 
     return results
diff --git a/searx/engines/wikipedia.py b/searx/engines/wikipedia.py
index 3af8f1c71..db2fdc000 100644
--- a/searx/engines/wikipedia.py
+++ b/searx/engines/wikipedia.py
@@ -11,13 +11,12 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode, quote
 from lxml.html import fromstring
-
+from searx.url_utils import quote, urlencode
 
 # search-url
-base_url = 'https://{language}.wikipedia.org/'
-search_postfix = 'w/api.php?'\
+base_url = u'https://{language}.wikipedia.org/'
+search_url = base_url + u'w/api.php?'\
     'action=query'\
     '&format=json'\
     '&{query}'\
@@ -37,16 +36,16 @@ def url_lang(lang):
     else:
         language = lang
 
-    return base_url.format(language=language)
+    return language
 
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
     if query.islower():
-        query += '|' + query.title()
+        query = u'{0}|{1}'.format(query.decode('utf-8'), query.decode('utf-8').title()).encode('utf-8')
 
-    params['url'] = url_lang(params['language']) \
-        + search_postfix.format(query=urlencode({'titles': query}))
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'titles': query}),
+                                      language=url_lang(params['language']))
 
     return params
 
@@ -78,7 +77,7 @@ def extract_first_paragraph(content, title, image):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    search_result = loads(resp.content)
+    search_result = loads(resp.text)
 
     # wikipedia article's unique id
     # first valid id is assumed to be the requested article
@@ -99,11 +98,9 @@ def response(resp):
     extract = page.get('extract')
 
     summary = extract_first_paragraph(extract, title, image)
-    if not summary:
-        return []
 
     # link to wikipedia article
-    wikipedia_link = url_lang(resp.search_params['language']) \
+    wikipedia_link = base_url.format(language=url_lang(resp.search_params['language'])) \
         + 'wiki/' + quote(title.replace(' ', '_').encode('utf8'))
 
     results.append({'url': wikipedia_link, 'title': title})
diff --git a/searx/engines/wolframalpha_api.py b/searx/engines/wolframalpha_api.py
index e743c8f56..595c6b7de 100644
--- a/searx/engines/wolframalpha_api.py
+++ b/searx/engines/wolframalpha_api.py
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@
 # @stable      yes
 # @parse       url, infobox
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import etree
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # search-url
 search_url = 'https://api.wolframalpha.com/v2/query?appid={api_key}&{query}'
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@ image_pods = {'VisualRepresentation',
 
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
-    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'input': query}),
-                                      api_key=api_key)
+    params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'input': query}), api_key=api_key)
     params['headers']['Referer'] = site_url.format(query=urlencode({'i': query}))
 
     return params
@@ -56,7 +55,7 @@ def replace_pua_chars(text):
                  u'\uf74e': 'i',        # imaginary number
                  u'\uf7d9': '='}        # equals sign
 
-    for k, v in pua_chars.iteritems():
+    for k, v in pua_chars.items():
         text = text.replace(k, v)
 
     return text
@@ -66,7 +65,7 @@ def replace_pua_chars(text):
 def response(resp):
     results = []
 
-    search_results = etree.XML(resp.content)
+    search_results = etree.XML(resp.text)
 
     # return empty array if there are no results
     if search_results.xpath(failure_xpath):
@@ -120,10 +119,10 @@ def response(resp):
     # append infobox
     results.append({'infobox': infobox_title,
                     'attributes': result_chunks,
-                    'urls': [{'title': 'Wolfram|Alpha', 'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'].decode('utf8')}]})
+                    'urls': [{'title': 'Wolfram|Alpha', 'url': resp.request.headers['Referer']}]})
 
     # append link to site
-    results.append({'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'].decode('utf8'),
+    results.append({'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'],
                     'title': title,
                     'content': result_content})
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/wolframalpha_noapi.py b/searx/engines/wolframalpha_noapi.py
index 1534501b3..2a8642f92 100644
--- a/searx/engines/wolframalpha_noapi.py
+++ b/searx/engines/wolframalpha_noapi.py
@@ -10,10 +10,9 @@
 
 from json import loads
 from time import time
-from urllib import urlencode
-from lxml.etree import XML
 
 from searx.poolrequests import get as http_get
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # search-url
 url = 'https://www.wolframalpha.com/'
@@ -62,7 +61,7 @@ obtain_token()
 # do search-request
 def request(query, params):
     # obtain token if last update was more than an hour
-    if time() - token['last_updated'] > 3600:
+    if time() - (token['last_updated'] or 0) > 3600:
         obtain_token()
     params['url'] = search_url.format(query=urlencode({'input': query}), token=token['value'])
     params['headers']['Referer'] = referer_url.format(query=urlencode({'i': query}))
@@ -112,9 +111,9 @@ def response(resp):
 
     results.append({'infobox': infobox_title,
                     'attributes': result_chunks,
-                    'urls': [{'title': 'Wolfram|Alpha', 'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'].decode('utf8')}]})
+                    'urls': [{'title': 'Wolfram|Alpha', 'url': resp.request.headers['Referer']}]})
 
-    results.append({'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'].decode('utf8'),
+    results.append({'url': resp.request.headers['Referer'],
                     'title': 'Wolfram|Alpha (' + infobox_title + ')',
                     'content': result_content})
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/www1x.py b/searx/engines/www1x.py
index 1269a5422..508803240 100644
--- a/searx/engines/www1x.py
+++ b/searx/engines/www1x.py
@@ -10,11 +10,9 @@
  @parse       url, title, thumbnail, img_src, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import urljoin
 from lxml import html
-import string
 import re
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['images']
@@ -55,7 +53,7 @@ def response(resp):
         cur_element += result_part
 
         # fix xml-error
-        cur_element = string.replace(cur_element, '"></a>', '"/></a>')
+        cur_element = cur_element.replace('"></a>', '"/></a>')
 
         dom = html.fromstring(cur_element)
         link = dom.xpath('//a')[0]
diff --git a/searx/engines/www500px.py b/searx/engines/www500px.py
index 546521ba3..7a2015ae9 100644
--- a/searx/engines/www500px.py
+++ b/searx/engines/www500px.py
@@ -13,8 +13,7 @@
 """
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import urljoin
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode, urljoin
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['images']
diff --git a/searx/engines/xpath.py b/searx/engines/xpath.py
index 0d39b28a8..f466697bd 100644
--- a/searx/engines/xpath.py
+++ b/searx/engines/xpath.py
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 from lxml import html
-from urllib import urlencode, unquote
-from urlparse import urlparse, urljoin
 from lxml.etree import _ElementStringResult, _ElementUnicodeResult
 from searx.utils import html_to_text
+from searx.url_utils import unquote, urlencode, urljoin, urlparse
 
 search_url = None
 url_xpath = None
 content_xpath = None
 title_xpath = None
+paging = False
 suggestion_xpath = ''
 results_xpath = ''
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/yacy.py b/searx/engines/yacy.py
index 7b1b6b35d..a62a1296e 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yacy.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yacy.py
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
 # @todo        parse video, audio and file results
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 from searx.utils import html_to_text
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/yahoo.py b/searx/engines/yahoo.py
index 5c62c2ed8..5387aaf54 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yahoo.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yahoo.py
@@ -11,10 +11,9 @@
  @parse       url, title, content, suggestion
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
-from urlparse import unquote
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text, extract_url
+from searx.url_utils import unquote, urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['general']
diff --git a/searx/engines/yahoo_news.py b/searx/engines/yahoo_news.py
index 1a0fd28f5..ae54a4acd 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yahoo_news.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yahoo_news.py
@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@
 # @stable      no (HTML can change)
 # @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate
 
-from urllib import urlencode
+import re
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text, extract_url
 from searx.engines.yahoo import parse_url, _fetch_supported_languages, supported_languages_url
-from datetime import datetime, timedelta
-import re
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['news']
diff --git a/searx/engines/yandex.py b/searx/engines/yandex.py
index 65aee28b8..1c789f6cb 100644
--- a/searx/engines/yandex.py
+++ b/searx/engines/yandex.py
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@
  @parse       url, title, content
 """
 
-from urllib import urlencode
 from lxml import html
-from searx.search import logger
+from searx import logger
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 logger = logger.getChild('yandex engine')
 
diff --git a/searx/engines/youtube_api.py b/searx/engines/youtube_api.py
index 1dfca5166..6de18aa2c 100644
--- a/searx/engines/youtube_api.py
+++ b/searx/engines/youtube_api.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@
 # @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate, thumbnail, embedded
 
 from json import loads
-from urllib import urlencode
 from dateutil import parser
+from searx.url_utils import urlencode
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos', 'music']
diff --git a/searx/engines/youtube_noapi.py b/searx/engines/youtube_noapi.py
index 9b7ca64c8..9f01841f6 100644
--- a/searx/engines/youtube_noapi.py
+++ b/searx/engines/youtube_noapi.py
@@ -8,10 +8,10 @@
 # @stable      no
 # @parse       url, title, content, publishedDate, thumbnail, embedded
 
-from urllib import quote_plus
 from lxml import html
 from searx.engines.xpath import extract_text
 from searx.utils import list_get
+from searx.url_utils import quote_plus
 
 # engine dependent config
 categories = ['videos', 'music']