diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index c356e95f18..a97ce03444 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -1173,8 +1173,7 @@ sub esc_param {
 sub esc_url {
 	my $str = shift;
 	return undef unless defined $str;
-	$str =~ s/([^A-Za-z0-9\-_.~();\/;?:@&=])/sprintf("%%%02X", ord($1))/eg;
-	$str =~ s/\+/%2B/g;
+	$str =~ s/([^A-Za-z0-9\-_.~();\/;?:@&= ]+)/CGI::escape($1)/eg;
 	$str =~ s/ /\+/g;
 	return $str;
 }