diff --git a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
index 83f43589..d08e9128 100644
--- a/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
+++ b/commons/src/main/java/org/archive/util/UriUtils.java
@@ -403,15 +403,21 @@ public class UriUtils {
     
     
     public static boolean isVeryLikelyUri(CharSequence candidate) {
-
-	if (isVeryLikelyAbsoluteUri(candidate) || isVeryLikelyRelativeUri(candidate)) {
-	    return true;
-	}
-
-	if (!isCandidateUri(candidate)) {
-	    return false;
-	}
-
+        // 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;
+        }
+        
         // relative or server-relative uri
         Matcher matcher = TextUtils.getMatcher(LIKELY_RELATIVE_URI_PATTERN, candidate);
         if (!matcher.matches()) {
@@ -462,41 +468,7 @@ 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 eda7ba2b..b26eed3f 100644
--- a/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java
+++ b/modules/src/main/java/org/archive/modules/extractor/ExtractorHTML.java
@@ -981,19 +981,16 @@ public class ExtractorHTML extends ContentExtractor implements InitializingBean
         } else if ("refresh".equalsIgnoreCase(httpEquiv) && content != null) {
             int urlIndex = content.indexOf("=") + 1;
             if(urlIndex>0) {
-		// strip any quotes ("') characters from the URL value.
-		String refreshUri = TextUtils.replaceAll("[\"']", content.substring(urlIndex), "");
-		try {
-		    int max = getExtractorParameters().getMaxOutlinks();
-		    if (UriUtils.isVeryLikelyAbsoluteUri(refreshUri)) {
-			add(curi, max, refreshUri, HTMLLinkContext.META, Hop.REFER);
-		    } else {
-			addRelativeToBase(curi, max, refreshUri, HTMLLinkContext.META, Hop.REFER);
-		    }
-		} catch (URIException e) {
-		    logUriError(e, curi.getUURI(), refreshUri);
-		}
-	    }
+                // strip any quotes ("') characters from the URL value.
+                String refreshUri = TextUtils.replaceAll("[\"']", content.substring(urlIndex), "");
+                try {
+                    int max = getExtractorParameters().getMaxOutlinks();
+                    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