[lowboy]

This was my initial reaction as well, but I appreciate the qs/hash sugaring:

    http://www.domain.com/path/index.html?query1=test&silly=willy#test=hash&chucky=cheese
    
    $.url('?');         // query1=test&silly=willy
    $.url('?silly');    // willy
    $.url('?poo');      // (an empty string)
    $.url('#');         // test=hash&chucky=cheese
    $.url('#chucky');   // cheese
    $.url('#poo');      // (an empty string)

[mistercow]

I think that's a bit too much functionality to put down as "sugar".