diff --git a/src/main/scala/app/RepositoryViewerController.scala b/src/main/scala/app/RepositoryViewerController.scala
index 834e133..df7fd8a 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/app/RepositoryViewerController.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/app/RepositoryViewerController.scala
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import util.Directory._
 import util.Implicits._
-import _root_.util.{ReferrerAuthenticator, JGitUtil, FileUtil}
+import _root_.util.{ReferrerAuthenticator, JGitUtil, FileUtil, StringUtil}
 import service._
 import org.scalatra._
 import java.io.File
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
         val content = if(viewer == "other"){
           if(bytes.isDefined && FileUtil.isText(bytes.get)){
             // text
-            JGitUtil.ContentInfo("text", bytes.map(new String(_, "UTF-8")))
+            JGitUtil.ContentInfo("text", bytes.map(StringUtil.convertFromByteArray))
           } else {
             // binary
             JGitUtil.ContentInfo("binary", None)
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@
           val files = JGitUtil.getFileList(git, revision, path)
           // process README.md
           val readme = files.find(_.name == "README.md").map { file =>
-            new String(JGitUtil.getContent(Git.open(getRepositoryDir(repository.owner, repository.name)), file.id, true).get, "UTF-8")
+            StringUtil.convertFromByteArray(JGitUtil.getContent(Git.open(getRepositoryDir(repository.owner, repository.name)), file.id, true).get)
           }
 
           repo.html.files(revision, repository,
diff --git a/src/main/scala/service/RepositorySearchService.scala b/src/main/scala/service/RepositorySearchService.scala
index 1cc3333..4c80441 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/service/RepositorySearchService.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/service/RepositorySearchService.scala
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@
       if(treeWalk.getFileMode(0) != FileMode.TREE){
         JGitUtil.getContent(git, treeWalk.getObjectId(0), false).foreach { bytes =>
           if(FileUtil.isText(bytes)){
-            val text      = new String(bytes, "UTF-8")
+            val text      = StringUtil.convertFromByteArray(bytes)
             val lowerText = text.toLowerCase
             val indices   = keywords.map(lowerText.indexOf _)
             if(!indices.exists(_ < 0)){
diff --git a/src/main/scala/util/JGitUtil.scala b/src/main/scala/util/JGitUtil.scala
index 0b042ca..9114364 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/util/JGitUtil.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/util/JGitUtil.scala
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import org.eclipse.jgit.api.Git
 import util.Directory._
+import util.StringUtil._
 import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 import org.eclipse.jgit.lib._
 import org.eclipse.jgit.revwalk._
@@ -414,7 +415,7 @@
           DiffInfo(ChangeType.ADD, null, walk.getPathString, None, None)
         } else {
           DiffInfo(ChangeType.ADD, null, walk.getPathString, None, 
-              JGitUtil.getContent(git, walk.getObjectId(0), false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(new String(_, "UTF-8")))
+              JGitUtil.getContent(git, walk.getObjectId(0), false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(convertFromByteArray))
         }))
       }
       walk.release
@@ -436,8 +437,8 @@
         DiffInfo(diff.getChangeType, diff.getOldPath, diff.getNewPath, None, None)
       } else {
         DiffInfo(diff.getChangeType, diff.getOldPath, diff.getNewPath,
-          JGitUtil.getContent(git, diff.getOldId.toObjectId, false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(new String(_, "UTF-8")),
-          JGitUtil.getContent(git, diff.getNewId.toObjectId, false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(new String(_, "UTF-8")))
+          JGitUtil.getContent(git, diff.getOldId.toObjectId, false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(convertFromByteArray),
+          JGitUtil.getContent(git, diff.getNewId.toObjectId, false).filter(FileUtil.isText).map(convertFromByteArray))
       }
     }.toList
   }
diff --git a/src/main/scala/util/StringUtil.scala b/src/main/scala/util/StringUtil.scala
index d8ab997..3484b83 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/util/StringUtil.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/util/StringUtil.scala
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package util
 
 import java.net.{URLDecoder, URLEncoder}
+import org.mozilla.universalchardet.UniversalDetector
 
 object StringUtil {
 
@@ -25,4 +26,15 @@
   def escapeHtml(value: String): String =
     value.replace("&", "&amp;").replace("<", "&lt;").replace(">", "&gt;").replace("\"", "&quot;")
 
+  def convertFromByteArray(content: Array[Byte]): String = new String(content, detectEncoding(content))
+
+  def detectEncoding(content: Array[Byte]): String = {
+    val detector = new UniversalDetector(null)
+    detector.handleData(content, 0, content.length)
+    detector.dataEnd()
+    detector.getDetectedCharset match {
+      case null => "UTF-8"
+      case e    => e
+    }
+  }
 }