diff --git a/Include/osrm/Reply.h b/Include/osrm/Reply.h
index 8e9b31750..82f2d2f41 100644
--- a/Include/osrm/Reply.h
+++ b/Include/osrm/Reply.h
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 namespace http {
 
 const char okHTML[]                  = "";
-const char badRequestHTML[]          = "<html><head><title>Bad Request</title></head><body><h1>400 Bad Request</h1></body></html>";
-const char internalServerErrorHTML[] = "<html><head><title>Internal Server Error</title></head><body><h1>500 Internal Server Error</h1></body></html>";
+const char badRequestHTML[]          = "{\"status\": 400,\"status_message\":\"Bad Request\"}";
+const char internalServerErrorHTML[] = "{\"status\": 500,\"status_message\":\"Internal Server Error\"}";
 const char seperators[]              = { ':', ' ' };
 const char crlf[]                    = { '\r', '\n' };
 const std::string okString = "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\n";
diff --git a/Server/RequestHandler.cpp b/Server/RequestHandler.cpp
index ba6d20629..dc3b88aad 100644
--- a/Server/RequestHandler.cpp
+++ b/Server/RequestHandler.cpp
@@ -76,21 +76,15 @@ void RequestHandler::handle_request(const http::Request& req, http::Reply& rep){
 
         if ( !result || (it != request.end()) ) {
             rep = http::Reply::StockReply(http::Reply::badRequest);
+            rep.content.clear();
             const int position = std::distance(request.begin(), it);
+            rep.content.push_back(
+                "{\"status\":400,\"status_message\":\"Query string malformed close to position "
+            );
             std::string tmp_position_string;
             intToString(position, tmp_position_string);
-            rep.content.push_back(
-                "Input seems to be malformed close to position "
-                "<br><pre>"
-            );
-            rep.content.push_back( request );
             rep.content.push_back(tmp_position_string);
-            rep.content.push_back("<br>");
-            const unsigned end = std::distance(request.begin(), it);
-            for(unsigned i = 0; i < end; ++i) {
-                rep.content.push_back("&nbsp;");
-            }
-            rep.content.push_back("^<br></pre>");
+            rep.content.push_back("\"}");
         } else {
             //parsing done, lets call the right plugin to handle the request
             BOOST_ASSERT_MSG(
