URLs with queries getting cut off

[Bubble181]

Hey guys,

This is something I'm simply not familiar with at all, so I'm hoping someone here is more versed in this sort of stuff.
This URL:
https://www.tnt.com/express/nl_nl/s...rce=public_menu&cons=865748134&searchType=CON
will always return the right page (the tracking info for this package) in Chrome or IE. It'll trunkate after the question mark in Firefox. I can't find any mention that this is an option in FF, or how or why it sometimes drops the query and sometimes doesn't.
This URL:

https://www.tnt.com/express/nl_nl/s...rce=public_menu&cons=865748125&searchType=CON
works perfectly in all three browsers.

Anyone have any idea? it's not cookie related, as it can be replicated across networks and users.

 

[PatrThom]

Except for a difference in the numbers (865748134 vs. 865748125), I don't see any difference at all in the URLs, so I have no idea what would be different about them. The re are no invisible characters, nothing like that.

My best guess is that whatever application is being used to pass the link around (email, text, whatever) is introducing a line break at the question mark:

turning...
https://www.tnt.com/express/nl_nl/site/home/applications/tracking.html?source=public_menu&cons=865748125&searchType=CON

into...
https://www.tnt.com/express/nl_nl/site/home/applications/tracking.html?
source=public_menu&cons=865748125&searchType=CON

...and causing the browser to treat that as two separate lines, either because of how the application parses lines of text OR because the window is too narrow to show the entire line and so it gets broken at the ? and therefore misinterpreted.

--Patrick