Truncate a string straight JavaScript

Use the substring method:

var length = 3;
var myString = "ABCDEFG";
var myTruncatedString = myString.substring(0,length);
// The value of myTruncatedString is "ABC"

So in your case:

var length = 3;  // set to the number of characters you want to keep
var pathname = document.referrer;
var trimmedPathname = pathname.substring(0, Math.min(length,pathname.length));

document.getElementById("foo").innerHTML =
     "<a href='" + pathname +"'>" + trimmedPathname + "</a>"