diff --git a/django/template/defaulttags.py b/django/template/defaulttags.py
index 52bbe8fea2..6a37c163e9 100644
--- a/django/template/defaulttags.py
+++ b/django/template/defaulttags.py
@@ -852,7 +852,7 @@ regroup = register.tag(regroup)
 
 def spaceless(parser, token):
     """
-    Normalize whitespace between HTML tags to a single space. This includes tab
+    Removes whitespace between HTML tags. This includes tab
     characters and newlines.
 
     Example usage::
@@ -865,7 +865,7 @@ def spaceless(parser, token):
 
     This example would return this HTML::
 
-        <p> <a href="foo/">Foo</a> </p>
+        <p><a href="foo/">Foo</a></p>
 
     Only space between *tags* is normalized -- not space between tags and text. In
     this example, the space around ``Hello`` won't be stripped::
diff --git a/django/utils/html.py b/django/utils/html.py
index a0d1e82dcf..baa2fb06fc 100644
--- a/django/utils/html.py
+++ b/django/utils/html.py
@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@ def strip_tags(value):
     return re.sub(r'<[^>]*?>', '', value)
 
 def strip_spaces_between_tags(value):
-    "Returns the given HTML with spaces between tags normalized to a single space"
-    return re.sub(r'>\s+<', '> <', value)
+    "Returns the given HTML with spaces between tags removed"
+    return re.sub(r'>\s+<', '><', value)
 
 def strip_entities(value):
     "Returns the given HTML with all entities (&something;) stripped"
diff --git a/docs/templates.txt b/docs/templates.txt
index 8ab383c461..d93ee49ac1 100644
--- a/docs/templates.txt
+++ b/docs/templates.txt
@@ -757,7 +757,7 @@ i.e.::
 spaceless
 ~~~~~~~~~
 
-Normalizes whitespace between HTML tags to a single space. This includes tab
+Removes whitespace between HTML tags. This includes tab
 characters and newlines.
 
 Example usage::
@@ -770,9 +770,9 @@ Example usage::
 
 This example would return this HTML::
 
-    <p> <a href="foo/">Foo</a> </p>
+    <p><a href="foo/">Foo</a></p>
 
-Only space between *tags* is normalized -- not space between tags and text. In
+Only space between *tags* is removed -- not space between tags and text. In
 this example, the space around ``Hello`` won't be stripped::
 
     {% spaceless %}
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
index a77b1dcb7a..e60e778d0b 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/templates/tests.py
@@ -522,8 +522,8 @@ class Templates(unittest.TestCase):
             ### I18N ##################################################################
 
             # {% spaceless %} tag
-            'spaceless01': ("{% spaceless %} <b>    <i> text </i>    </b> {% endspaceless %}", {}, "<b> <i> text </i> </b>"),
-            'spaceless02': ("{% spaceless %} <b> \n <i> text </i> \n </b> {% endspaceless %}", {}, "<b> <i> text </i> </b>"),
+            'spaceless01': ("{% spaceless %} <b>    <i> text </i>    </b> {% endspaceless %}", {}, "<b><i> text </i></b>"),
+            'spaceless02': ("{% spaceless %} <b> \n <i> text </i> \n </b> {% endspaceless %}", {}, "<b><i> text </i></b>"),
             'spaceless03': ("{% spaceless %}<b><i>text</i></b>{% endspaceless %}", {}, "<b><i>text</i></b>"),
 
             # simple translation of a string delimited by '