def _is_url(url):
    """
    Used to determine if a given string represents a URL
    """
    regex = re.compile(
        r'^(?:http|ftp)s?://'  # http:// or https://
        r'(?:(?:[A-Z0-9](?:[A-Z0-9-]{0,61}[A-Z0-9])?\.)+(?:[A-Z]{2,6}\.?|[A-Z0-9-]{2,}\.?)|'  # domain...
        r'localhost|'  # localhost...
        r'\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})'  # ...or ip
        r'(?::\d+)?'  # optional port
        r'(?:/?|[/?]\S+)$', re.IGNORECASE)
    if regex.match(url) is not None:
        return True
    else:
        return False