diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/JSON.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/JSON.js
index 4ba3138673..bd7c53f685 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/JSON.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/JSON.js
@@ -59,6 +59,14 @@ OpenLayers.Format.JSON = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
      */
     pretty: false,
 
+    /**
+     * Property: nativeJSON
+     * {Boolean} Does the browser support native json?
+     */
+    nativeJSON: (function() {
+        return !!(window.JSON && typeof JSON.parse == "function" && typeof JSON.stringify == "function");
+    })(),
+
     /**
      * Constructor: OpenLayers.Format.JSON
      * Create a new parser for JSON.
@@ -87,15 +95,18 @@ OpenLayers.Format.JSON = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
      * {Object} An object, array, string, or number .
      */
     read: function(json, filter) {
-        /**
-         * Parsing happens in three stages. In the first stage, we run the text
-         *     against a regular expression which looks for non-JSON
-         *     characters. We are especially concerned with '()' and 'new'
-         *     because they can cause invocation, and '=' because it can cause
-         *     mutation. But just to be safe, we will reject all unexpected
-         *     characters.
-         */
-        try {
+        var object;
+        if (this.nativeJSON) {
+            object = JSON.parse(json, filter);
+        } else try {
+            /**
+             * Parsing happens in three stages. In the first stage, we run the
+             *     text against a regular expression which looks for non-JSON
+             *     characters. We are especially concerned with '()' and 'new'
+             *     because they can cause invocation, and '=' because it can
+             *     cause mutation. But just to be safe, we will reject all
+             *     unexpected characters.
+             */
             if (/^[\],:{}\s]*$/.test(json.replace(/\\["\\\/bfnrtu]/g, '@').
                                 replace(/"[^"\\\n\r]*"|true|false|null|-?\d+(?:\.\d*)?(?:[eE][+\-]?\d+)?/g, ']').
                                 replace(/(?:^|:|,)(?:\s*\[)+/g, ''))) {
@@ -107,7 +118,7 @@ OpenLayers.Format.JSON = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
                  *     begin a block or an object literal. We wrap the text in
                  *     parens to eliminate the ambiguity.
                  */
-                var object = eval('(' + json + ')');
+                object = eval('(' + json + ')');
 
                 /**
                  * In the optional third stage, we recursively walk the new
@@ -127,17 +138,16 @@ OpenLayers.Format.JSON = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
                     }
                     object = walk('', object);
                 }
-
-                if(this.keepData) {
-                    this.data = object;
-                }
-
-                return object;
             }
         } catch(e) {
             // Fall through if the regexp test fails.
         }
-        return null;
+
+        if(this.keepData) {
+            this.data = object;
+        }
+
+        return object;
     },
 
     /**
@@ -159,7 +169,9 @@ OpenLayers.Format.JSON = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format, {
         var type = typeof value;
         if(this.serialize[type]) {
             try {
-                json = this.serialize[type].apply(this, [value]);
+                json = (!this.pretty && this.nativeJSON) ?
+                    JSON.stringify(value) :
+                    this.serialize[type].apply(this, [value]);
             } catch(err) {
                 OpenLayers.Console.error("Trouble serializing: " + err);
             }