no, that is not a literal ampersand, it is a separating character in that instance.
you use the % escaped version if you want a variable value to contain a literal ampersand:
&rel=1&q=rock%26roll
in this example the & character separates each variable, rel and q. the value for the q variable is rock&roll. the ampersand is used to separate variables so to prevent roll from becoming a variable name rather than a part of the string, you use the % escaped version.
i will log a bug for the issue with the refresh button.