diff --git a/lib/tilelive.js b/lib/tilelive.js
index acc7bc3..7422f06 100644
--- a/lib/tilelive.js
+++ b/lib/tilelive.js
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ var qs = require('querystring');
 var progress = require('progress-stream');
 var queue = require('queue-async');
 
+// polyfill for browsers
+if (!qs.unescape) qs.unescape = decodeURIComponent
+
 global.tileliveProtocols = global.tileliveProtocols || {};
 
 // Add your protocol handlers here.