$.parseHTML() seems to be broken in jQuery v1.12.0 and later for Chrome
This code shows empty string in Chrome but it is "test.html" in other browsers.
In jQuery 1.11.3 Chrome was OK too.

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.12.1.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function test()
    {
        var html = '<a href="test.html"></a>';
        var ref = $.parseHTML(html);

        alert(ref[0].href);
    }
</script>

EDIT (@mgol): I modified the alert to alert the href property of the anchor element; originally the test case was alerting the element (alert(ref)) which meant it relied on its stringification.