You could load the LaTeX package called url and issue the command \urlstyle{same} in the document's preamble. That way, all material contained in various \url{....} directives will be typeset in current text font.
A big plus of using the \url directive for typesetting URL strings is that LaTeX will (generally) do a good job finding permissible line breaks in long URL strings.
Addendum:
If you want to include "less than" and "greater than" signs at the start and end of a URL string, @GonzaloMedina has pointed out that one can do so nicely by loading the textcomp package and using that package's commands \textless and \textgreater. For instance, the code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{textcomp,url}
\urlstyle{same}
\newcommand\myurl[1]{\textless\url{#1}\textgreater}
\begin{document}
\myurl{http://tex.stackexchange.com/}
\end{document}
generates:

urlwhich provides the command\url{}. Also, don't use dollar sign if the content is not mathematical. – Sigur Apr 29 '13 at 18:56\texttt{<http://tex.stackexchange.com/>}. – kan Apr 29 '13 at 19:17