diff --git a/inc/html.php b/inc/html.php
index bd87ee7a19944ca84af768151fb865db6b0df84e..b962c60753c33e8255d180882e57fc590bc5f17b 100644
--- a/inc/html.php
+++ b/inc/html.php
@@ -318,7 +318,13 @@ function html_search(){
     global $ID;
     global $lang;
 
-    print p_locale_xhtml('searchpage');
+    $intro = p_locale_xhtml('searchpage');
+    // allow use of placeholder in search intro
+    $intro = str_replace(
+                array('@QUERY@','@SEARCH@'),
+                array(hsc(rawurlencode($QUERY)),hsc($QUERY)),
+                $intro);
+    echo $intro;
     flush();
 
     //show progressbar