diff --git a/linkify.js b/linkify.js
index 4d8013c..6512dac 100644
--- a/linkify.js
+++ b/linkify.js
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  *
  * Usage:   See demonstration page: linkify.html
  */
-function linkify(text) {
+function linkify(text, provided_target) {
     /* Here is a commented version of the regex (in PHP string format):
     $url_pattern = '/# Rev:20100913_0900 github.com\/jmrware\/LinkifyURL
     # Match http & ftp URL that is not already linkified.
@@ -51,9 +51,15 @@ function linkify(text) {
       )                        # End $14. Other non-delimited URL.
     /imx';
     */
-    var url_pattern = /(\()((?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\))|(\[)((?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\])|(\{)((?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\})|(<|&(?:lt|#60|#x3c);)((?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(>|&(?:gt|#62|#x3e);)|((?:^|[^=\s'"\]])\s*['"]?|[^=\s]\s+)(\b(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/[a-z0-9\-._~!$'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+(?:(?!&(?:gt|#0*62|#x0*3e);|&(?:amp|apos|quot|#0*3[49]|#x0*2[27]);[.!&',:?;]?(?:[^a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]|$))&[a-z0-9\-._~!$'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]*)*[a-z0-9\-_~$()*+=\/#[\]@%])/img;
-    var url_replace = '$1$4$7$10$13<a href="$2$5$8$11$14">$2$5$8$11$14</a>$3$6$9$12';
-    return text.replace(url_pattern, url_replace);
+    var target = '_self';
+    if (provided_target) {
+        target = provided_target;
+    }
+    var url_pattern = /(\()((?:(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/|www\.)[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\))|(\[)((?:(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/|www\.)[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\])|(\{)((?:(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/|www\.)[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(\})|(<|&(?:lt|#60|#x3c);)((?:(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/|www\.)[a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+)(>|&(?:gt|#62|#x3e);)|((?:^|[^=\s'"\]])\s*['"]?|[^=\s]\s+)(\b(?:(?:ht|f)tps?:\/\/|www\.)[a-z0-9\-._~!$'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]+(?:(?!&(?:gt|#0*62|#x0*3e);|&(?:amp|apos|quot|#0*3[49]|#x0*2[27]);[.!&',:?;]?(?:[^a-z0-9\-._~!$&'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]|$))&[a-z0-9\-._~!$'()*+,;=:\/?#[\]@%]*)*[a-z0-9\-_~$()*+=\/#[\]@%])/img;
+    var url_replace = '$1$4$7$10$13<a target="' + target + '" href="$2$5$8$11$14">$2$5$8$11$14</a>$3$6$9$12';
+    var output = text.replace(url_pattern, url_replace);
+    output = output.replace(/href="www\./img, 'href="http://www.');
+    return output;
 }
 function linkify_html(text) {
     text = text.replace(/&amp;apos;/g, '&#39;'); // IE does not handle &apos; entity!