$re = '/(?<=>) \b|\b (?=<)/';
$str = '<span class="sitestr"> googleblog.com </span></a>" ) "</span><a/>" | "<a>
<span class="sitestr"> googleblog.com </span></a> ) </span><a/> | <a>';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php