Use xdg-open to open a url with a new process

I'm starting to experiment with Crunchbang (which is based on Debian, and uses terminator ) as a web development environment, and one of the things I am struggling with is the behaviour of `xdg-open`. I come from an OSX background, so forgive me if this question comes off as dense. I would like to be able to open a url with `xdg-open http://www.google.com and then continue to use the same terminal window to work (it's how open functions in OSX). Right now, using xdg-open occupies the current tab/session until I close browser window, or manually end things with ctrl + c`. I'd much prefer it start a new process, that way I can open up a URL, refer to data on the page, and use it in the same tab/window without needing to open an additional one.