Yep, I see the changes live. If you wait a little bit, the URL bar even updates to show the new search. I did try again, with http://google.com still in the URL bar by the time I searched for blue roses and clicked a result. Clicking back did return me to the full URL with blue roses in the search.

Does the same issue happen if you turn off all extensions?

Now that Google instant is rolled out everywhere, I do actually like it better then the old way. It seemed odd at first, but it does save time when trying to refine a search, usually from having to go back and add + or " around something.