diff --git a/lib/url.js b/lib/url.js
index c4b534a5d5..45dea833b2 100644
--- a/lib/url.js
+++ b/lib/url.js
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ var protocolPattern = /^([a-z0-9]+:)/,
   path = require("path"), // internal module, guaranteed to be loaded already.
   querystring = require('querystring');
 
-function urlParse (url, parseQueryString) {
+function urlParse (url, parseQueryString, slashesDenoteHost) {
   if (url && typeof(url) === "object" && url.href) return url;
 
   var out = { href : url },
@@ -32,10 +32,15 @@ function urlParse (url, parseQueryString) {
   }
 
   // figure out if it's got a host
-  var slashes = rest.substr(0, 2) === "//";
-  if (slashes && !(proto && hostlessProtocol[proto])) {
-    rest = rest.substr(2);
-    out.slashes = true;
+  // user@server is *always* interpreted as a hostname, and url
+  // resolution will treat //foo/bar as host=foo,path=bar because that's
+  // how the browser resolves relative URLs.
+  if (slashesDenoteHost || proto || rest.match(/^\/\/[^@\/]+@[^@\/]+/)) {
+    var slashes = rest.substr(0, 2) === "//";
+    if (slashes && !(proto && hostlessProtocol[proto])) {
+      rest = rest.substr(2);
+      out.slashes = true;
+    }
   }
   if (!hostlessProtocol[proto] && (slashes || (proto && !slashedProtocol[proto]))) {
     // there's a hostname.
@@ -133,8 +138,8 @@ function urlResolve (source, relative) {
 function urlResolveObject (source, relative) {
   if (!source) return relative;
 
-  source = urlParse(urlFormat(source));
-  relative = urlParse(urlFormat(relative));
+  source = urlParse(urlFormat(source), false, true);
+  relative = urlParse(urlFormat(relative), false, true);
 
   // hash is always overridden, no matter what.
   source.hash = relative.hash;
diff --git a/test/simple/test-url.js b/test/simple/test-url.js
index f9879e4dc6..312c939b02 100644
--- a/test/simple/test-url.js
+++ b/test/simple/test-url.js
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ var url = require("url"),
 // URLs to parse, and expected data
 // { url : parsed }
 var parseTests = {
+  "//some_path" : {
+    "href": "//some_path",
+    "pathname": "//some_path"
+  },
   "http://www.narwhaljs.org/blog/categories?id=news" : {
     "href": "http://www.narwhaljs.org/blog/categories?id=news",
     "protocol": "http:",