diff --git a/TODO.rst b/TODO.rst
index 9f2d873..49d2de0 100644
--- a/TODO.rst
+++ b/TODO.rst
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 * tab and shift-tab bindings for completion
-* better url matching regex
+* improved matching capabilities (not just urls)
 * hint mode overlay for urls (like elinks/vimperator/pentadactyl)
 * scrollback search needs to be improved upstream [1]_
 * expose keybindings in ``termite.cfg``
diff --git a/termite.c b/termite.c
index 1b21e28..3d7add1 100644
--- a/termite.c
+++ b/termite.c
@@ -14,7 +14,19 @@
 
 #define CSI "\x1b["
 
-static const char * const url_regex = "(ftp|http)s?://[-a-zA-Z0-9.?$%&/=_~#.,:;+()]*";
+#define USERCHARS       "-[:alnum:]"
+#define USERCHARS_CLASS "[" USERCHARS "]"
+#define PASSCHARS_CLASS "[-[:alnum:]\\Q,?;.:/!%$^*&~\"#'\\E]"
+#define HOSTCHARS_CLASS "[-[:alnum:]]"
+#define HOST            HOSTCHARS_CLASS "+(\\." HOSTCHARS_CLASS "+)*"
+#define PORT            "(?:\\:[[:digit:]]{1,5})?"
+#define PATHCHARS_CLASS "[-[:alnum:]\\Q_$.+!*,;@&=?/~#%\\E]"
+#define PATHTERM_CLASS  "[^\\Q]'.}>) \t\r\n,\"\\E]"
+#define SCHEME          "(?:news:|telnet:|nntp:|file:\\/|https?:|ftps?:|sftp:|webcal:)"
+#define USERPASS        USERCHARS_CLASS "+(?:" PASSCHARS_CLASS "+)?"
+#define URLPATH         "(?:(/" PATHCHARS_CLASS "+(?:[(]" PATHCHARS_CLASS "*[)])*" PATHCHARS_CLASS"*)*"PATHTERM_CLASS ")?"
+
+static const char * const url_regex = SCHEME "//(?:" USERPASS "\\@)?" HOST PORT URLPATH;
 
 typedef enum overlay_mode {
     OVERLAY_HIDDEN = 0,