Most of the terminal emulators auto-detect when a URL appears onscreen and allow to conveniently open them (e.g. via Ctrl+click or Cmd+click, or the right click menu).
It was, however, not possible until now for arbitrary text to point to URLs, just as on webpages.
In spring 2017, GNOME Terminal and iTerm2 have changed this.
GNOME Terminal is based on the VTE widget, and almost all of this work went to VTE. As such, we expect other VTE-based terminal emulators to catch up and add support really soon. Other terminal emulators are also welcome and encouraged to join!