new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mobile/android/base/java/org/mozilla/gecko/util/URLUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/* -*- Mode: Java; c-basic-offset: 4; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil; -*-
+ * This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
+
+package org.mozilla.gecko.util;
+
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+
+public class URLUtils {
+
+    /**
+     * Strip the ref from a URL, if present
+     *
+     * @return The base URL, without the ref. The original String is returned if it has no ref,
+     *         of if the input is malformed.
+     */
+    public static String stripRefFromURL(final String inputURL) {
+        try {
+            final URL url = new URL(inputURL);
+
+            final String ref = url.getRef();
+            if (ref != null) {
+                // Remove the ref (-ref.length()), and the # separator (-1).
+                return inputURL.substring(0, inputURL.length() - ref.length() - 1);
+            }
+        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+            // Ignore - we can't do much with a malformed URL
+        }
+        return inputURL;
+    }
+}

--- a/mobile/android/base/moz.build
+++ b/mobile/android/base/moz.build
@@ -126,16 +126,17 @@ gujar.sources += ['java/org/mozilla/geck
     'util/NetworkUtils.java',
     'util/NonEvictingLruCache.java',
     'util/PrefUtils.java',
     'util/ProxySelector.java',
     'util/RawResource.java',
     'util/StringUtils.java',
     'util/ThreadUtils.java',
     'util/UIAsyncTask.java',
+    'util/URLUtils.java',
     'util/UUIDUtil.java',
     'util/WeakReferenceHandler.java',
     'util/WebActivityMapper.java',
     'util/WindowUtils.java',
 ]]
 gujar.extra_jars = [
     CONFIG['ANDROID_SUPPORT_ANNOTATIONS_JAR_LIB'],
     CONFIG['ANDROID_SUPPORT_V4_AAR_LIB'],

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mobile/android/tests/background/junit4/src/org/mozilla/gecko/util/TestURLUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+package org.mozilla.gecko.util;
+
+import android.support.v4.util.Pair;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
+import org.mozilla.gecko.background.testhelpers.TestRunner;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for uuid utils.
+ */
+@RunWith(TestRunner.class)
+public class TestURLUtils {
+    private static final List<Pair<String, String>> URLS;
+
+    static {
+        URLS = new ArrayList<>();
+
+        URLS.add(new Pair<String, String>(null, null));
+        URLS.add(new Pair<>("", ""));
+        URLS.add(new Pair<>("??AAABBBCCC", "??AAABBBCCC"));
+
+        URLS.add(new Pair<>("https://mozilla.org", "https://mozilla.org"));
+        URLS.add(new Pair<>("https://mozilla.org#BBBB", "https://mozilla.org"));
+        URLS.add(new Pair<>("https://mozilla.org/#BBBB", "https://mozilla.org/"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testURLS() {
+        for (Pair<String, String> urlPair : URLS) {
+            final String in = urlPair.first;
+            final String expected = urlPair.second;
+
+            final String out = URLUtils.stripRefFromURL(in);
+
+            assertEquals(expected, out);
+        }
+    }
+}