Maximum length of a HTTP URL

This question came to my mind suddenly when i saw a long http url at the address bar. What is the maximum length of an URL ? 255 ? I remember someone telling me it's 255. But wait, doesn't it sound too less ?


Was it browser specific ? Why does Microsoft writes a support article on URL Length in IE ?
Yes, indeed Browser specific. Not just browsers alone, but servers too. And this is not so striking. After all, Servers & Browsers are the only computing components that works with URL's !

This forumn topic contains 200+ comments in pursuit of figuring this out.

This FAQ article in boutell.com provides some deep insights on these and saved me a certain elaboration here.

I reached out to the best place on the internet. W3C.ORG. 
So, for the records, What does W3C Actually say about URL Length ?

The Maximum length of a URI can be anything. There is no fixed limit. It's upto the server to smartly process it. In case if the server cannot, a 414 Error Code should be sent back !

Right, that solves the debate. I will just go get some sleeeeeep :p