Considering the ongoing skirmishes going on right now between Amazon and Google over digital book publishing, it’s more than ironic that Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos was one of only a few initial investors in the search giant.

But–in one of the many interesting details in New Yorker author Ken Auletta’s new book, “Googled: The End Of The World As We Know It”–it was indeed Bezos who invested $250,000 in the start-up in 1998 at four cents a share.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

There’s a great excerpt in the New Yorker this week.

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Internet navigation browser plug-in maker Cooliris, which lets users “see” the Web in a more visual manner, has gotten $15.5 million in additional funding from its investors.

The new round includes Kleiner Perkins, DAG Ventures, the Westly Group and T-Mobile’s T-Ventures, bringing its total funding to $18.5 million.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up is also releasing out of beta the latest upgrade to its 3-D “Wall” software, which displays more online content and information from around the Web, including from social-networking services like Facebook, shopping sites and from a user’s own hard drive.

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Earlier this week, I visited Dash Navigation, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based car-navigation device start-up that is being backed to the tune of $42 million by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.
There, I got a look at the new GPS device called the Dash Express that went on sale exclusively on Amazon (AMZN) today and was also [...]

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