diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/highlight.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/highlight.js
index f35e8546fc..0a6b9e0b27 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/highlight.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/highlight.js
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ jQuery.extend({
 });
 
 jQuery.fn.unhighlight = function (options) {
-    var settings = { className: 'highlight', element: 'span' };
+    var settings = { className: 'highlight-strong', element: 'span' };
     jQuery.extend(settings, options);
 
     return this.find(settings.element + "." + settings.className).each(function () {
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ jQuery.fn.unhighlight = function (options) {
 };
 
 jQuery.fn.highlight = function (words, options) {
-    var settings = { className: 'highlight', element: 'span', caseSensitive: false, wordsOnly: false };
+    var settings = { className: 'highlight-strong', element: 'span', caseSensitive: false, wordsOnly: false };
     jQuery.extend(settings, options);
 
     if (words.constructor === String) {
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/post_view.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/post_view.js
index f316af35ef..bc7fe08f8a 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/post_view.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/post_view.js
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ Discourse.PostView = Discourse.GroupedView.extend(Ember.Evented, {
       if(this._highlighted){
          cooked.unhighlight();
       }
-      cooked.highlight(highlight);
+      cooked.highlight(highlight.split(/\s+/));
       this._highlighted = true;
 
     } else if(this._highlighted){
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/search-results-type.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/search-results-type.js.es6
index 1ed3d355e2..e914d2ceb8 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/search-results-type.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/views/search-results-type.js.es6
@@ -4,5 +4,11 @@ export default Ember.CollectionView.extend({
     tagName: 'li',
     classNameBindings: ['selected'],
     templateName: Discourse.computed.fmt('parentView.displayType', "search/%@_result")
-  })
+  }),
+  didInsertElement: function(){
+    var term = this.get('controller.term');
+    if(!_.isEmpty(term)) {
+      this.$().highlight(term.split(/\s+/));
+    }
+  }
 });
diff --git a/app/assets/stylesheets/common/base/header.scss b/app/assets/stylesheets/common/base/header.scss
index d043a989d7..506cc036c6 100644
--- a/app/assets/stylesheets/common/base/header.scss
+++ b/app/assets/stylesheets/common/base/header.scss
@@ -335,3 +335,7 @@
   padding: 4px 6px;
   margin-left: 6px;
 }
+
+.highlight-strong {
+  background-color: dark-light-diff($highlight, $secondary, 40%, -50%);
+}
diff --git a/lib/search/grouped_search_results.rb b/lib/search/grouped_search_results.rb
index 574e827df5..742b1493b6 100644
--- a/lib/search/grouped_search_results.rb
+++ b/lib/search/grouped_search_results.rb
@@ -30,13 +30,7 @@ class Search
       terms = @term.split(/\s+/)
       blurb = TextHelper.excerpt(cooked, terms.first, radius: 100)
       blurb = TextHelper.truncate(cooked, length: 200) if blurb.blank?
-      blurb = Sanitize.clean(blurb)
-
-      terms.each do |term|
-        blurb.gsub!(Regexp.new("(#{Regexp.escape(term)})", Regexp::IGNORECASE), "<span class='highlighted'>\\1</span>")
-      end
-
-      blurb
+      Sanitize.clean(blurb)
     end
 
     def add(object)
diff --git a/spec/components/search_spec.rb b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
index 0ac9a78c38..f47698c4c5 100644
--- a/spec/components/search_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ describe Search do
         p = result.posts[0]
         p.topic.id.should == topic.id
         p.id.should == reply.id
-        result.blurb(p).should == "this reply has no <span class='highlighted'>quotes</span>"
+        result.blurb(p).should == "this reply has no quotes"
       end
     end
 
diff --git a/spec/controllers/search_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/search_controller_spec.rb
index a0e075a4a6..5d4d9e2930 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/search_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/search_controller_spec.rb
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ describe SearchController do
       response.should be_success
       data = JSON.parse(response.body)
       data['posts'][0]['id'].should == my_post.id
-      data['posts'][0]['blurb'].should == 'this is my really <span class=\'highlighted\'>awesome</span> post'
+      data['posts'][0]['blurb'].should == 'this is my really awesome post'
       data['topics'][0]['id'].should == my_post.topic_id
     end
   end