diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/util/Utils.java b/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/util/Utils.java
index 1d1aa17c6d..cec4747a49 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/util/Utils.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/jclouds/util/Utils.java
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ import java.net.URLDecoder;
 import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 import javax.annotation.Resource;
 
@@ -79,7 +81,7 @@ public class Utils {
          String returnVal = URLEncoder.encode(in, "UTF-8").replaceAll("\\+", "%20").replaceAll(
                   "\\*", "%2A").replaceAll("%7E", "~");
          for (char c : skipEncode) {
-            returnVal = returnVal.replaceAll(plainToEncodedChars.get(c+""), c + "");
+            returnVal = returnVal.replaceAll(plainToEncodedChars.get(c + ""), c + "");
          }
          return returnVal;
       } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
@@ -266,4 +268,36 @@ public class Utils {
       return decodeString(bytes, UTF8_ENCODING);
    }
 
+   public static final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\{(.+?)\\}");
+
+   /**
+    * replaces tokens that are expressed as <code>{token}</code>
+    * 
+    * <p/>
+    * ex. if input is "hello {where}"<br/>
+    * and replacements is "where" -> "world" <br/>
+    * then replaceTokens returns "hello world"
+    * 
+    * @param input
+    *           source to replace
+    * @param replacements
+    *           token/value pairs
+    */
+   public static String replaceTokens(String input, Map<String, String> replacements) {
+      Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
+      StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
+      int i = 0;
+      while (matcher.find()) {
+         String replacement = replacements.get(matcher.group(1));
+         builder.append(input.substring(i, matcher.start()));
+         if (replacement == null)
+            builder.append(matcher.group(0));
+         else
+            builder.append(replacement);
+         i = matcher.end();
+      }
+      builder.append(input.substring(i, input.length()));
+      return builder.toString();
+   }
+
 }
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/HttpUtilsTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/HttpUtilsTest.java
index 5c4315a3ae..ccd0aadbc3 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/HttpUtilsTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/HttpUtilsTest.java
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ import org.testng.annotations.Test;
  * 
  * @author Adrian Cole
  */
-@Test(groups = "performance", sequential = true, testName = "s3.S3UtilsTest")
+@Test(groups = "performance", sequential = true, testName = "jclouds.HttpUtils")
 public class HttpUtilsTest extends PerformanceTest {
 
    @Test(dataProvider = "hmacsha1")
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/UtilsTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/UtilsTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b21be5a58b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/jclouds/util/UtilsTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/**
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2009 Cloud Conscious, LLC. <info@cloudconscious.com>
+ *
+ * ====================================================================
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ * ====================================================================
+ */
+package org.jclouds.util;
+
+import static org.testng.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+
+import org.jclouds.PerformanceTest;
+import org.testng.annotations.Test;
+
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableMap;
+
+/**
+ * @author Adrian Cole
+ */
+@Test(groups = "unit", testName = "jclouds.UtilsTest")
+public class UtilsTest extends PerformanceTest {
+
+   public void testReplaceTokens() throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
+      assertEquals(Utils.replaceTokens("hello {where}", ImmutableMap.of("where", "world")),
+               "hello world");
+   }
+}