use jquery to help trim SPAN tags without attributes

gistfile1.js

// empty SPAN trimming code:
var emptySpanTags = /<span(?:\b[^>]*)?><\/span>/gi;
var noAttributeFilter = function () {
	// make sure the element has no elements
	if (this && this.attributes) {
		return (this.attributes.length <= 0);
	}
	return true;
};
var trimPlainSpans = function (html) {
	// before using jQuery, strip out empty spans
	html = html.replace(emptySpanTags, "");

	// use jQuery to get the rest
	var $html = $("<div>" + html + "</div>");

	// test for 1.4 functions: detach, replaceWith, unwrap
	if (typeof jQuery.detach !== "function") {
		jQuery.fn.detach = function( selector ) {
			return this.remove( selector, true );
		};
	}

	if (typeof jQuery.replaceWith !== "function") {
		jQuery.fn.replaceWith = function( value ) {
			if ( this[0] && this[0].parentNode ) {
				// Make sure that the elements are removed from the DOM before they are inserted
				// this can help fix replacing a parent with child elements
				if ( !jQuery.isFunction( value ) ) {
					value = jQuery( value ).detach();
				}

				return this.each(function() {
					var next = this.nextSibling, parent = this.parentNode;

					jQuery(this).remove();

					if ( next ) {
						jQuery(next).before( value );
					} else {
						jQuery(parent).append( value );
					}
				});
			} else {
				return this.pushStack( jQuery(jQuery.isFunction(value) ? value() : value), "replaceWith", value );
			}
		};
	}

	if (typeof jQuery.unwrap !== "function") {
		jQuery.fn.unwrap = function() {
			return this.parent().each(function() {
				if ( !jQuery.nodeName( this, "body" ) ) {
					jQuery( this ).replaceWith( this.childNodes );
				}
			}).end();
		};
	}

	// get regular child nodes and unwrap them
	jQuery("span", $html).filter(noAttributeFilter).children().unwrap();
	
	// get text nodes and unwrap them too
	jQuery("span", $html).filter(noAttributeFilter).contents().filter(function() {
		//Node.TEXT_NODE === 3
		return (this.nodeType === 3);
	}).unwrap();

	html = $html.html();
	return html;
};

Thanks!