diff --git a/notification.c b/notification.c
index b0b12a4..f96931f 100644
--- a/notification.c
+++ b/notification.c
@@ -185,51 +185,20 @@ void notification_free(notification * n)
          */
 char *notification_strip_markup(char *str)
 {
-        char *replace_buf, *start, *end;
-
         if (str == NULL) {
                 return NULL;
         }
 
+        /* strip all tags */
+        string_strip_delimited(str, '<', '>');
+
+        /* unquote the remainder */
         str = string_replace_all("&quot;", "\"", str);
         str = string_replace_all("&apos;", "'", str);
         str = string_replace_all("&amp;", "&", str);
         str = string_replace_all("&lt;", "<", str);
         str = string_replace_all("&gt;", ">", str);
 
-        /* remove tags */
-        str = string_replace_all("<b>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("</b>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("<br>", " ", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("<br/>", " ", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("<br />", " ", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("<i>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("</i>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("<u>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("</u>", "", str);
-        str = string_replace_all("</a>", "", str);
-
-        while ((start = strstr(str, "<a href")) != NULL) {
-                end = strstr(start, ">");
-                if (end != NULL) {
-                        replace_buf = strndup(start, end - start + 1);
-                        str = string_replace(replace_buf, "", str);
-                        free(replace_buf);
-                } else {
-                    break;
-                }
-        }
-
-        while ((start = strstr(str, "<img src")) != NULL) {
-                end = strstr(start, "/>");
-                if (end != NULL) {
-                        replace_buf = strndup(start, end - start + 2);
-                        str = string_replace(replace_buf, "", str);
-                        free(replace_buf);
-                } else {
-                    break;
-                }
-        }
         return str;
 }
 
@@ -270,19 +239,25 @@ char *notification_replace_format(const char *needle, const char *replacement,
                 tmp = notification_quote_markup(tmp);
                 ret = string_replace_all(needle, tmp, haystack);
                 free(tmp);
-        } else if (!allow_markup) {
+        } else {
                 tmp = strdup(replacement);
-                if (!settings.ignore_newline) {
+                if (settings.ignore_newline) {
+                        tmp = string_replace_all("<br>", " ", tmp);
+                        tmp = string_replace_all("<br/>", " ", tmp);
+                        tmp = string_replace_all("<br />", " ", tmp);
+                } else {
                         tmp = string_replace_all("<br>", "\n", tmp);
                         tmp = string_replace_all("<br/>", "\n", tmp);
                         tmp = string_replace_all("<br />", "\n", tmp);
                 }
-                tmp = notification_strip_markup(tmp);
-                tmp = notification_quote_markup(tmp);
+
+                if (!allow_markup) {
+                        tmp = notification_strip_markup(tmp);
+                        tmp = notification_quote_markup(tmp);
+                }
+
                 ret = string_replace_all(needle, tmp, haystack);
                 free(tmp);
-        } else {
-                ret = string_replace_all(needle, replacement, haystack);
         }
 
         return ret;
@@ -320,7 +295,7 @@ char *notification_extract_markup_urls(char **str_ptr) {
                 }
                 free(replace_buf);
         } else {
-            break;
+                break;
         }
     }
     *str_ptr = str;
diff --git a/utils.c b/utils.c
index 0ab4b3a..7d07ffe 100644
--- a/utils.c
+++ b/utils.c
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@
 #include "dunst.h"
 
 char *string_replace_char(char needle, char replacement, char *haystack) {
-    char *current = haystack;
-    while ((current = strchr (current, needle)) != NULL)
-        *current++ = replacement;
-    return haystack;
+        char *current = haystack;
+        while ((current = strchr (current, needle)) != NULL)
+                *current++ = replacement;
+        return haystack;
 }
 
 char *string_replace_at(char *buf, int pos, int len, const char *repl)
@@ -25,13 +25,21 @@ char *string_replace_at(char *buf, int pos, int len, const char *repl)
         buf_len = strlen(buf);
         repl_len = strlen(repl);
         size = (buf_len - len) + repl_len + 1;
-        tmp = malloc(size);
+
+        if (repl_len <= len) {
+                tmp = buf;
+        } else {
+                tmp = malloc(size);
+        }
 
         memcpy(tmp, buf, pos);
         memcpy(tmp + pos, repl, repl_len);
-        memcpy(tmp + pos + repl_len, buf + pos + len, buf_len - (pos + len) + 1);
+        memmove(tmp + pos + repl_len, buf + pos + len, buf_len - (pos + len) + 1);
+
+        if(tmp != buf) {
+                free(buf);
+        }
 
-        free(buf);
         return tmp;
 }
 
@@ -105,6 +113,21 @@ char **string_to_argv(const char *s)
         return argv;
 }
 
+void string_strip_delimited(char *str, char a, char b)
+{
+        int iread=-1, iwrite=0, copen=0;
+        while (str[++iread] != 0) {
+                if (str[iread] == a) {
+                        ++copen;
+                } else if (str[iread] == b && copen > 0) {
+                        --copen;
+                } else if (copen == 0) {
+                        str[iwrite++] = str[iread];
+                }
+        }
+        str[iwrite] = 0;
+}
+
 int digit_count(int i)
 {
         i = ABS(i);
diff --git a/utils.h b/utils.h
index 9617301..1009f96 100644
--- a/utils.h
+++ b/utils.h
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ char *string_append(char *a, const char *b, const char *sep);
 
 char **string_to_argv(const char *s);
 
+/* strip content between two delimiter characters (inplace) */
+void string_strip_delimited(char *str, char a, char b);
+
 /* exit with an error message */
 void die(char *msg, int exit_value);