public static String readStringFromUrl(String url) throws IOException, JSONException { InputStream is = new URL(url).openStream(); try { BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is, Charset.forName("UTF-8"))); String jsonText = readAll(rd); return jsonText; } finally { is.close(); } } private static String readAll(Reader rd) throws IOException { StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); int cp; while ((cp = rd.read()) != -1) { sb.append((char) cp); } return sb.toString(); }