This might give you some ideas.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Tk;
$mw = MainWindow->new( -title => "hyperlinks" );
$t   = $mw->Scrolled('Text')->pack;
$tag = "tag000";
foreach (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    split (/(http:\S+)/);
    foreach (@_) {
        if (/(http:\S+)/) {
            $t->insert( 'end', $_, $tag );
            $t->tagConfigure( $tag, -foreground => 'blue' );
            $t->tagBind( $tag,
                '<Any-Enter>' => [ \&manipulate_link, $tag, 'raised', 
+'hand2' ]
            );
            $t->tagBind( $tag,
                '<Any-Leave>' => [ \&manipulate_link, $tag, 'flat', 'x
+term' ] );
            $t->tagBind( $tag,
                '<Button-1>' => [ \&manipulate_link, $tag, 'sunken' ] 
+);
            $t->tagBind( $tag,
                '<ButtonRelease-1>' =>
                  [ \&manipulate_link, $tag, 'raised', undef, \&printm
+e ] );
            $tag++;
        }
        else {
            $t->insert( 'end', $_ );
        }
    }
    $t->insert( 'end', "\n" );
}
MainLoop;

sub printme {
    local ($,) = " ";
    print "printme:", @_, "\n";
}

sub manipulate_link {

    # manipulate the link as you press the mouse key 

    my ($a)      = shift;
    my ($tag)    = shift;
    my ($relief) = shift;
    my ($cursor) = shift;
    my ($after)  = shift;

    # by configuring the relief (to simulate a button press) 
    $a->tagConfigure( $tag, -relief => $relief, -borderwidth => 1 );

    # by changing the cursor between hand and xterm 
    $a->configure( -cursor => $cursor ) if ($cursor);

    # and by scheduling the specified action to run "soon" 
    if ($after) {
        my ($s) = $a->get( $a->tagRanges($tag) );
        $main::mw->after( 200, [ $after, $a, $s, $tag, @_ ] ) if ($aft
+er);
    }
}
__DATA__
Hi there.  This is text.
THis is more text but http://this.is.a/hyperlink in a line.
http://this.is.another/hyperlink followed by
http://this.is.a.third/hyperlink
__END__
[download]

As far as determining the default browser, I would look at how midnight commander launches html in it's mc.ext file. This works with Netscape and Mozilla

# htm
regex/\.(htm||HTM)$
        Open=if test -n "gnome-moz-remote" && test -n "$DISPLAY"; then
+ (gnome-moz-remote file://%d/%p &) >/dev/null 2>&1; else links %f 2>/
+dev/null || lynx -force_html %f; fi
        View=%view{ascii} lynx -dump -force_html %f
[download]

---

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