diff --git a/lib/logstash/web/public/js/logstash.js b/lib/logstash/web/public/js/logstash.js
index a63fadcf2..60681020f 100644
--- a/lib/logstash/web/public/js/logstash.js
+++ b/lib/logstash/web/public/js/logstash.js
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@
     },
 
     search: function(query) {
+      if (query == undefined || query == "") {
+        return;
+      }
+      var display_query = query.replace("<", "&lt;").replace(">", "&gt;")
+      $("#querystatus").html("Loading query '" + display_query + "'")
       logstash.params.q = query;
       document.location.hash = escape(JSON.stringify(logstash.params));
       $("#results").load("/search/ajax", logstash.params);
diff --git a/lib/logstash/web/server.rb b/lib/logstash/web/server.rb
index e4da165fc..8ac0f10fe 100755
--- a/lib/logstash/web/server.rb
+++ b/lib/logstash/web/server.rb
@@ -32,17 +32,51 @@ class LogStash::Web::Server < Sinatra::Base
   end # '/'
 
   aget '/search' do
-    headers({"Content-Type" => "text/html" })
+    result_callback = proc do 
+      status 500 if @error
+
+      params[:format] ||= "html"
+      case params[:format]
+      when "html"
+        headers({"Content-Type" => "text/html" })
+        body haml :"search/results", :layout => !request.xhr?
+      when "text"
+        headers({"Content-Type" => "text/plain" })
+        body erb :"search/results.txt", :layout => false
+      when "txt"
+        headers({"Content-Type" => "text/plain" })
+        body erb :"search/results.txt", :layout => false
+      when "json"
+        headers({"Content-Type" => "text/plain" })
+        hits = @hits.collect { |h| h["_source"] }
+        response = {
+          "hits" => hits,
+          "facets" => (@results["facets"] rescue nil),
+        }
+
+        response["error"] = @error if @error
+        body response.to_json
+      end # case params[:format]
+    end # proc result_callback
+
+    # We'll still do a search query here even though most users
+    # have javascript enabled, we need to show the results in
+    # case a user doesn't have javascript.
     if params[:q] and params[:q] != ""
       elasticsearch.search(params) do |@results|
         @hits = (@results["hits"]["hits"] rescue [])
-        body haml :"search/results", :layout => !request.xhr?
+        begin
+          result_callback.call
+        rescue => e
+          puts e
+        end
       end
     else
+      #@error = "No query given."
       @hits = []
-      body haml :"search/results", :layout => !request.xhr?
+      result_callback.call
     end
-  end
+  end # aget '/search'
 
   apost '/search/ajax' do
     headers({"Content-Type" => "text/html" })
diff --git a/lib/logstash/web/views/search/ajax.haml b/lib/logstash/web/views/search/ajax.haml
index 7f11fc4fd..97ca46735 100644
--- a/lib/logstash/web/views/search/ajax.haml
+++ b/lib/logstash/web/views/search/ajax.haml
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@
           last
   - if @hits.length == 0 
     - if !params[:q]
-      No query given. How about <a href="?q=*" class="querychanger">this?</a>
+      %h3#querystatus No query given. How about <a href="?q=*" class="querychanger">this?</a>
     - else
-      No results for query '#{params[:q]}' 
+      %h3#querystatus No results for query '#{params[:q]}' 
   - else
     %table.results
       %tr
diff --git a/lib/logstash/web/views/search/results.txt.erb b/lib/logstash/web/views/search/results.txt.erb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d6d71db94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/logstash/web/views/search/results.txt.erb
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+<% 
+  # Sinatra currently doesn't do ERB with newline trimming, so we
+  # have to write this funky mishmosh that is hard to read.
+if @error %>Error: <%= @error %><% else
+  @hits.each do |hit|
+    event = LogStash::Event.new(hit["_source"])
+%><%= event.message || event.to_hash.to_json %>
+<%   end
+   end 
+%>