diff --git a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
index d08e9128..e5f374ba 100644
--- a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
+++ b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
@@ -403,21 +403,15 @@ public class UriUtils {
     
     
     public static boolean isVeryLikelyUri(CharSequence candidate) {
-        // must have a . or /
-        if (!TextUtils.matches(NAIVE_LIKELY_URI_PATTERN, candidate)) {
-            return false;
-        }
-        
-        // absolute uri
-        if (TextUtils.matches("^(?i)https?://[^<>\\s/]+\\.[^<>\\s/]+(?:/[^<>\\s]*)?", candidate)) {
-            return true;
-        }
-        
-        // "protocol-relative" uri
-        if (TextUtils.matches("^//[^<>\\s/]+\\.[^<>\\s/]+(?:/[^<>\\s]*)?", candidate)) {
-            return true;
-        }
-        
+
+	if (isVeryLikelyAbsoluteUri(candidate) || isVeryLikelyRelativeUri(candidate)) {
+	    return true;
+	}
+
+	if (!isCandidateUri(candidate)) {
+	    return false;
+	}
+
         // relative or server-relative uri
         Matcher matcher = TextUtils.getMatcher(LIKELY_RELATIVE_URI_PATTERN, candidate);
         if (!matcher.matches()) {
@@ -468,7 +462,41 @@ public class UriUtils {
         return true;
     }
 
+	protected static boolean isCandidateUri(CharSequence candidate) {
+		// must have a . or /
+		if (!TextUtils.matches(NAIVE_LIKELY_URI_PATTERN, candidate)) {
+			return false;
+		}
 
+		return true;
+	}
+
+	public static boolean isVeryLikelyAbsoluteUri(CharSequence candidate) {
+
+		if (!isCandidateUri(candidate)) {
+			return false;
+		}
+
+		// absolute uri
+		if (TextUtils.matches("^(?i)https?://[^<>\\s/]+\\.[^<>\\s/]+(?:/[^<>\\s]*)?", candidate)) {
+			return true;
+		}
+
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	public static boolean isVeryLikelyRelativeUri(CharSequence candidate) {
+		if (!isCandidateUri(candidate)) {
+			return false;
+		}
+
+		// "protocol-relative" uri
+		if (TextUtils.matches("^//[^<>\\s/]+\\.[^<>\\s/]+(?:/[^<>\\s]*)?", candidate)) {
+			return true;
+		}
+
+		return false;
+	}
     
 //
 // legacy likely-URI test from ExtractorJS
diff --git a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java
index ebcaf47a..53218036 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java
@@ -982,14 +982,16 @@ public class ExtractorHTML extends ContentExtractor implements InitializingBean
             int urlIndex = content.indexOf("=") + 1;
             if(urlIndex>0) {
                 String refreshUri = content.substring(urlIndex);
-                try {
-                    int max = getExtractorParameters().getMaxOutlinks();
-                    addRelativeToBase(curi, max, refreshUri, 
-                            HTMLLinkContext.META, Hop.REFER);
-                } catch (URIException e) {
-                    logUriError(e, curi.getUURI(), refreshUri);
-                }
-            }
+		try {
+		    int max = getExtractorParameters().getMaxOutlinks();
+		    if (UriUtils.isVeryLikelyAbsoluteUri(refreshUri)) {
+			add(curi, max, refreshUri, HTMLLinkContext.META, Hop.REFER);
+		    }
+		    addRelativeToBase(curi, max, refreshUri, HTMLLinkContext.META, Hop.REFER);
+		} catch (URIException e) {
+		    logUriError(e, curi.getUURI(), refreshUri);
+		}
+	    }
         }
         else if (content != null) {
             //look for likely urls in 'content' attribute