diff --git a/History.txt b/History.txt
index fcea11f..77af696 100644
--- a/History.txt
+++ b/History.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
   * Support button elements (Patch from Nick Sieger)
   * Support matching select options by regexp (Patch from Kyle Hargraves)
   * Support relative links, including href="?foo=bar" (Patch from Kyle Hargraves)
+  * Support links to fully qualified URLs starting with http:// or https:// (Luke Melia)
   
 * Bug fixes
 
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@
   * Added reloads method to reload the page (Patch from Kamal Fariz Mahyuddi)
   * Prevent making a request if clicking on local anchor link (Patch from Kamal Fariz Mahyuddi)
   * Added clicks_link_within(selector, link_text), allowing restricting link search 
-  to within a given css selector (Path from Luke Melia)
+  to within a given css selector (Patch from Luke Melia)
   * Allow specifying the input name/label when doing a select (Patch from David Chelimsky)
   * Raise a specific exception if the developer tries to manipulate form elements before loading a page (Patch from James Deville)
   * Add support for alternate POST, PUT and DELETE link clicking (Patch from Kyle Hargraves)
diff --git a/lib/webrat/link.rb b/lib/webrat/link.rb
index d9ff682..e13d21d 100644
--- a/lib/webrat/link.rb
+++ b/lib/webrat/link.rb
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ module Webrat
       method ||= http_method
       return if href =~ /^#/ && method == :get
       
+      update_protocol(href)
       Page.new(@page.session, absolute_href, method, authenticity_token.blank? ? {} : {"authenticity_token" => authenticity_token})
     end
     
@@ -26,9 +27,19 @@ module Webrat
     def href
       @element["href"]
     end
+    
+    def update_protocol(href)
+      if href =~ /^https:/
+        @page.session.https!(true)
+      elsif href =~ /^http:/
+        @page.session.https!(false)
+      end
+    end
 
     def absolute_href
-      if href =~ /^\?/
+      if href =~ %r{^https?://www.example.com(/.*)}
+        $LAST_MATCH_INFO.captures.first
+      elsif href =~ /^\?/
         "#{@page.url}#{href}"
       elsif href !~ /^\//
         "#{@page.url}/#{href}"
diff --git a/spec/clicks_link_spec.rb b/spec/clicks_link_spec.rb
index 28a1ffe..26132c5 100644
--- a/spec/clicks_link_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/clicks_link_spec.rb
@@ -199,6 +199,23 @@ describe "clicks_link" do
     @session.expects(:get_via_redirect).with("/page/sub", {})
     @session.clicks_link "Jump to sub page"
   end
+  
+  it "should follow fully qualified local links" do
+    @response.stubs(:body).returns(<<-EOS)
+      <a href="http://www.example.com/page/sub">Jump to sub page</a>
+    EOS
+    @session.expects(:get_via_redirect).with("/page/sub", {})
+    @session.clicks_link "Jump to sub page"
+  end
+
+  it "should follow fully qualified secure local links" do
+    @response.stubs(:body).returns(<<-EOS)
+      <a href="https://www.example.com/page/sub">Jump to sub page</a>
+    EOS
+    @session.expects(:https!).with(true)
+    @session.expects(:get_via_redirect).with("/page/sub", {})
+    @session.clicks_link "Jump to sub page"
+  end
 
   it "should follow query parameters" do
     @session.current_page.stubs(:url).returns("/page")