Facebook\'s status update input (well, contenteditable div) detects links.
When typing a link it waits until the spacebar is pressed before fetching the URL.
I am actually going to suggest it listens to every keyup because it has multiple uses, if you type @ it will suggest friends, etc.
keyup
@
It probably scans the text and finds links and makes them, well linkable, and then crawls the page so you can post it as "Sharing" the page.