diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index 4a25aa9..f793934 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
 <script src="lib/angular/angular.js"></script>
 <script src="lib/iscroll.js"></script>
 <script src="js/app.js"></script>
+<script src="js/utilities.js"></script>
 <script src="js/services.js"></script>
 <script src="js/directives.js"></script>
 <script src="js/controllers.js"></script>
diff --git a/js/services.js b/js/services.js
index ac8670b..e9dbff7 100644
--- a/js/services.js
+++ b/js/services.js
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ angular.module('podcasts.services', [])
             }
         }
     }])
-    .service('feeds', ['$log', '$q', 'dbNew', 'db', 'downloaderBackend', 'xmlParser', 'feedItems', function($log, $q, db, dbOld, downloaderBackend, xmlParser, feedItems) {
+    .service('feeds', ['$log', '$q', 'dbNew', 'db', 'downloaderBackend', 'xmlParser', 'feedItems', 'utilities', function($log, $q, db, dbOld, downloaderBackend, xmlParser, feedItems, utilities) {
         return {
             feeds: [],
             add: function(url) {
@@ -157,9 +157,9 @@ angular.module('podcasts.services', [])
                     });
                 };
 
-                // TODO: verify URL format somewhere
+                var cleanedUrl = utilities.clean_url(url);
 
-                var promise = downloaderBackend.downloadXml(url);
+                var promise = downloaderBackend.downloadXml(cleanedUrl);
                 promise.then(function(xml) {
                     var channelChildren = xml.find('channel').children(),
                         newFeed = {},
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ angular.module('podcasts.services', [])
                         }
                     });
 
-                    newFeed.url = url;
+                    newFeed.url = cleanedUrl;
                     newFeed.title = channelChildren.find('title').text();
                     newFeed.summary = channelChildren.find('description').text();
                     newFeed.nrQueueItems = 1;
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ angular.module('podcasts.services', [])
                 }, function() {
                     console.warn('Could not fetch XML for feed, adding just URL for now');
                     var newFeed = {};
-                    newFeed.url = url;
+                    newFeed.url = cleanedUrl;
 
                     finishSave(newFeed);
                 });
diff --git a/js/utilities.js b/js/utilities.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00a0f6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/js/utilities.js
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+angular.module('podcasts.utilities', [])
+    .service('utilities', function() {
+        return {
+            clean_url: function(url) {
+                var cleanedUrl;
+
+                if (url.substring(0, 4) != 'http') {
+                    cleanedUrl = 'http://' + url;
+                } else {
+                    cleanedUrl = url;
+                }
+
+                return cleanedUrl;
+            }
+        }
+    })
+;