diff --git a/lib/geocoder.rb b/lib/geocoder.rb
index 0360fd85b000af844bd5066601d001038e60e83d..13d543d004f8b641669ee5b67118b68b8b3bc078 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder.rb
@@ -209,15 +209,10 @@ module Geocoder
   # Query Google for geographic information about the given phrase.
   # Returns the XML response as a hash. This method is not intended for
   # general use (prefer Geocoder.search).
-  # 
-  # Google's XML document has incorrect encoding (says UTF-8 but is actually
-  # ISO 8859-1). We have to fix this or REXML won't parse it correctly.
-  # This may be fixed in the future; see the bug report at:
-  # http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=233
   #
   def self.search(query)
     if doc = _fetch_xml(query)
-      REXML::Document.new(doc.sub('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1'))
+      REXML::Document.new(doc)
     end
   end