Creating a custom launch action on the menu

I am trying to cerate a simple icon on my Android tablet to launch, say, the browser, with a specific URL. Under Windows, this is simply creating a shortcut. Under Ubuntu, this is just creating a .desktop file with a couple of parameters, including the actual command line to execute. But I cannot seemto be able to do this under Android, and although I don't mind command line on a desktop computer, this is not a viable option under Android. Can this be done with the stock launcher that comes with Android, or should I use a special one. I registered a couple of those.