title: Use "byte-like object" from urlopen.read with JSON?
body: <p>Just trying to test out very simple Python JSON commands, but I'm having some trouble.</p>
  
  <pre><code>urlopen('http://www.similarsitesearch.com/api/similar/ebay.com').read()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>should output</p>
  
  <pre><code>'{"num":20,"status":"ok","r0":"http:\\/\\/www.propertyroom.com\\/","r1":"http:\\/\\/www.ubid.com\\/","r2":"http:\\/\\/www.bidcactus.com\\/","r3":"http:\\/\\/www.etsy.com\\/","r4":"http:\\/\\/us.ebid.net\\/","r5":"http:\\/\\/www.bidrivals.com\\/","r6":"http:\\/\\/www.ioffer.com\\/","r7":"http:\\/\\/www.shopgoodwill.com\\/","r8":"http:\\/\\/www.beezid.com\\/","r9":"http:\\/\\/www.webidz.com\\/","r10":"http:\\/\\/www.auctionzip.com\\/","r11":"http:\\/\\/www.overstock.com\\/","r12":"http:\\/\\/www.bidspotter.com\\/","r13":"http:\\/\\/www.paypal.com\\/","r14":"http:\\/\\/www.ha.com\\/","r15":"http:\\/\\/www.onlineauction.com\\/","r16":"http:\\/\\/bidz.com\\/","r17":"http:\\/\\/www.epier.com\\/","r18":"http:\\/\\/www.sell.com\\/","r19":"http:\\/\\/www.rasmus.com\\/"}'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but I get that same string, with a <code>b</code> in front:</p>
  
  <pre><code>b'{"num":20,"status":"ok","r0":"http:\\/\\/www.propertyroom.com\\/","r1":"http:\\/\\/www.ubid.com\\/","r2":"http:\\/\\/www.bidcactus.com\\/","r3":"http:\\/\\/www.etsy.com\\/","r4":"http:\\/\\/us.ebid.net\\/","r5":"http:\\/\\/www.bidrivals.com\\/","r6":"http:\\/\\/www.ioffer.com\\/","r7":"http:\\/\\/www.shopgoodwill.com\\/","r8":"http:\\/\\/www.beezid.com\\/","r9":"http:\\/\\/www.webidz.com\\/","r10":"http:\\/\\/www.auctionzip.com\\/","r11":"http:\\/\\/www.overstock.com\\/","r12":"http:\\/\\/www.bidspotter.com\\/","r13":"http:\\/\\/www.paypal.com\\/","r14":"http:\\/\\/www.ha.com\\/","r15":"http:\\/\\/www.onlineauction.com\\/","r16":"http:\\/\\/bidz.com\\/","r17":"http:\\/\\/www.epier.com\\/","r18":"http:\\/\\/www.sell.com\\/","r19":"http:\\/\\/www.rasmus.com\\/"}'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Subsequently, when I try to run</p>
  
  <pre><code>json.loads(urlopen('http://similarsitesearch.com/api/similar/ebay.com').read())
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>it gives me the error message:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object" </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>which I'm assuming has something to do with the <code>b</code>?</p>
  
  <p>I imported <code>urlopen</code> from <code>urllib.request</code>, and I am running Python 3.</p>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>