> If I type "blabla" into the url bar and press enter it
> still goes to google
It goes to a search engine defined in user preferences, actually. You are correct that this search engine is not correlated with the one selected in the search field.
> 'safebrowsing', the anti phishing detection thing?
That's carefully designed to not have to send the url to the safebrowsing provider. The browser has a client-side database of blacklisted urls, and there is also a mode where a one-way hash of the url is sent to the safebrowsing provider. In no case is the actual url sent.
It goes to a search engine defined in user preferences, actually. You are correct that this search engine is not correlated with the one selected in the search field.
> 'safebrowsing', the anti phishing detection thing?
That's carefully designed to not have to send the url to the safebrowsing provider. The browser has a client-side database of blacklisted urls, and there is also a mode where a one-way hash of the url is sent to the safebrowsing provider. In no case is the actual url sent.