What symbol can be used in front of a URL ?

Question

When you typeset an email address, you can put a "@" or a letter symbol in front of it. In the same fashion, what symbol can be used in front of a URL?

Answer 1

There is the \Mundus command from the marvosym package. It inserts a world globe.

EDIT: Better example!

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{marvosym}
\usepackage{url}

\begin{document}

\Mundus~\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com}

\end{document}

EDIT: A screenshot! =P

I think it suits the occasion. =)

UPDATE: Here's an update based on Martin Scharrer's idea. I got this globe from The Noun Project and converted to a PDF file named globe.pdf (also available here). Then:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{marvosym}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{url}

\newcommand*\myglobe{%
% as suggested by Martin ;-)
\includegraphics[height=1.6ex]{globe.pdf}}

\begin{document}

\Mundus~\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com}

\myglobe~\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com}

\end{document}

The new output:

Answer 2

Here is my try at bringing more readable globe to LaTeX. It is quite inaccurate, but IMO it's acceptable for non utterly dead serious publications. :)

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[a5paper,landscape,margin=1mm]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern,setspace,url}
\usepackage{tikz}
\pagestyle{empty}
\parindent=0pt
\doublespacing
\newcommand\globe{%
\hspace{0.25em}%
\tikz
%% Work based on the:
%% Globe icon from Brightmix iconset
%% by Brightmix licensed under WTFPL
%% http://www.iconfinder.com/browse/iconset/brightmix/
%% http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/brightmix/128/monotone_earth_world_transparent.png
%%
%% Traced and simplified in Inkscape, exported using inkscape2tikz.
%% Simplification and adjustment in Vim by Przemoc.
\path [y=0.009ex,x=0.009ex,yscale=-1,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt,fill]
    (90,90) circle (90)%
    (99,167) .. controls (128,164) and (155,142) ..
    (164,114) .. controls (166,107) and (170,96) ..
    (166,90) .. controls (160,91) and (159,109) ..
    (156,97) .. controls (155,87) and (142,82) ..
    (133,81) .. controls (131,89) and (146,83) ..
    (141,91) .. controls (136,97) and (125,103) ..
    (123,91) .. controls (123,87) and (115,80) ..
    (120,88) .. controls (121,94) and (124,107) ..
    (132,101) .. controls (137,110) and (120,115) ..
    (123,125) .. controls (119,133) and (112,141) ..
    (104,145) .. controls (92,148) and (91,132) ..
    (91,124) .. controls (91,115) and (87,106) ..
    (78,110) .. controls (72,112) and (67,111) ..
    (64,106) .. controls (60,103) and (58,99) ..
    (59,93) .. controls (58,83) and (67,77) ..
    (71,70) .. controls (63,68) and (69,57) ..
    (75,60) .. controls (70,51) and (83,49) ..
    (88,44) .. controls (95,46) and (108,42) ..
    (101,34) .. controls (97,26) and (100,47) ..
    (92,41) .. controls (88,39) and (80,37) ..
    (87,32) .. controls (93,26) and (103,29) ..
    (111,29) .. controls (118,28) and (132,30) ..
    (134,27) .. controls (127,19) and (116,16) ..
    (105,13) .. controls (91,10) and (76,11) ..
    (62,17) .. controls (55,20) and (43,22) ..
    (44,31) .. controls (47,38) and (37,50) ..
    (33,49) .. controls (32,43) and (28,38) ..
    (25,46) .. controls (18,54) and (31,66) ..
    (20,72) .. controls (10,78) and (10,91) ..
    (12,101) .. controls (14,112) and (26,115) ..
    (30,125) .. controls (37,130) and (47,134) ..
    (39,143) .. controls (32,149) and (47,154) ..
    (51,158) .. controls (65,165) and (83,170) ..
    (99,167) --
    cycle
    (124,138) .. controls (119,132) and (136,122) ..
    (129,133) .. controls (128,134) and (128,139) ..
    (124,138) --
    cycle
    (73,42) .. controls (63,39) and (81,27) ..
    (80,39) .. controls (80,41) and (75,44) ..
    (73,42) --
    cycle
    (100,77) .. controls (105,74) and (121,81) ..
    (115,72) .. controls (111,71) and (106,63) .. 
    (103,69) .. controls (99,66) and (98,56) .. 
    (93,60) .. controls (97,61) and (98,70) .. 
    (93,64) .. controls (90,52) and (70,71) .. 
    (81,70) .. controls (91,64) and (93,82) ..
    (100,77) --
    cycle
    (136,67) .. controls (138,62) and (133,52) ..
    (129,61) .. controls (131,63) and (133,77) ..
    (136,67) --
    cycle
    (123,63) .. controls (122,55) and (104,57) ..
    (112,64) .. controls (116,65) and (120,66) ..
    (123,63) --
    cycle;%
\hspace{0.25em}%
}
\newcommand\texsxurl{URL \globe\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com/}}
\begin{document}
\par\tiny\texsxurl
\par\scriptsize\texsxurl
\par\footnotesize\texsxurl
\par\small\texsxurl
\par\normalsize\texsxurl
\par\large\texsxurl
\par\Large\texsxurl
\par\LARGE\texsxurl
\par\huge\texsxurl
\par\Huge\texsxurl
\par\fontsize{32}{36}\selectfont\texsxurl
\end{document}