diff --git a/src-test/google/fontapiurlbuildertest.js b/src-test/google/fontapiurlbuildertest.js
index 13dda204..f117c819 100644
--- a/src-test/google/fontapiurlbuildertest.js
+++ b/src-test/google/fontapiurlbuildertest.js
@@ -37,3 +37,14 @@ FontApiUrlBuilderTest.prototype.testBuildProperUrlWithSubsets = function() {
 	       '?family=Font1:bold%7CFont2:italic%7CFont3' +
       '&subset=greek,cyrillic', fontApiUrlBuilder.build());
 };
+
+FontApiUrlBuilderTest.prototype.testBuildProperUrlWithSubsetsNoVariations =
+    function() {
+  var fontApiUrlBuilder = new webfont.FontApiUrlBuilder();
+
+  fontApiUrlBuilder.setFontFamilies([ 'Font1:bold,italic:greek,cyrillic',
+      'Font2:italic', 'Font3::latin' ]);
+  assertEquals("http:" + webfont.FontApiUrlBuilder.DEFAULT_API_URL +
+	       '?family=Font1:bold,italic%7CFont2:italic%7CFont3' +
+      '&subset=greek,cyrillic,latin', fontApiUrlBuilder.build());
+};
diff --git a/src/google/fontapiurlbuilder.js b/src/google/fontapiurlbuilder.js
index 0bd16c50..6c09505f 100644
--- a/src/google/fontapiurlbuilder.js
+++ b/src/google/fontapiurlbuilder.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ webfont.FontApiUrlBuilder = function(apiUrl) {
     var protocol = 'https:' == window.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:';
 
     this.apiUrl_ = protocol + webfont.FontApiUrlBuilder.DEFAULT_API_URL;
-  }  
+  }
   this.fontFamilies_ = [];
   this.subsets_ = [];
 };
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ webfont.FontApiUrlBuilder.prototype.parseFontFamilies_ =
     if (elements.length == 3) {
       this.subsets_.push(elements.pop());
     }
-    this.fontFamilies_.push(elements.join(':'));
+    var joinCharacter = '';
+    if (elements.length == 2 && elements[1] != ''){
+      joinCharacter = ':';
+    }
+    this.fontFamilies_.push(elements.join(joinCharacter));
   }
 };