Protocol-relative URLs
The protocol, or scheme, of a URL defines how the resource will be obtained. Two common protocols on the web are HTTP and HTTPS. For various reasons, many sites have been switching to permitting access through both the HTTP and HTTPS protocols. Each protocol has advantages and disadvantages, including for some users that one or the other protocol either does not function, or is very undesirable. When a link contains a protocol specifier it results in the browser following the link using the specified protocol regardless of the potential desires of the user. It is possible to construct valid URLs without specifying a protocol which are called protocol-relative links (PRL) or protocol-relative URLs. Using PRLs on a page permits the viewer of the page to visit new pages using whichever protocol was used to obtain the page containing the link. This supports continuing to use whichever protocol the viewer has chosen to use for obtaining the current page when accessing new pages.
An example of a PRL is //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page which is created by removing the protocol prefix.
List of allowed URL characters
Unreserved
May be encoded but it is not necessary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - _ . ~Reserved
Have to be encoded sometimes
! * ' ( ) ; : @ & = + $ , / ? % # [ ]
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