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

The new round includes Kleiner Perkins, Cooliris’s initial investor, as well as DAG Ventures, the Westly Group and T-Mobile’s T-Ventures.

Cooliris had already received $3 million two years ago from Kleiner.

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

The trend toward making the Web browser look like a television screen and navigating information more visually is increasing all over the Internet, from video services like Boxee to visually-oriented search services like Searchme.

“We’re trying to allow users to discover, navigate and consume more of the Web in the same amount of time, using visual means, than people do now through text links,” said Austin Shoemaker, Cooliris co-founder and CTO in an interview last week with BoomTown.

Launched last year with a plug-in called PicLens, Cooliris said that its software had been downloaded 10 million times and that it has three million active daily users. It also has a popular iPhone version of its software.

Here are two more Cooliris screenshots like the one above (click on any of them to make them larger):

At the Google launch of its new “not-a-Windows-killer” Chrome browser, held at its Mountain View, Calif., HQ yesterday morning, Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin arrived late and looked casually dressed and very windblown.

But he was quite talkative about Google’s Chrome, the software to navigate the Internet that the search giant released yesterday.

Brin talked about a lot of aspects of its development and implications, as well as its business prospects for Google (GOOG).

(Google’s other Co-Founder Larry Page is also in a small part of the video, also talking about Chrome.)

In a follow-up interview with me on the same video, Brin talks about possible market share for Chrome, the Mac version and the reaction from the company-that-shall-not-be-named-much–Microsoft (MSFT).

(And, not to get too personal, but check out Brin’s luvvly-jubbly Cayman Red Crocs too.)

Here’s the video:

Also, here are links to three blog posts I did live from the launch yesterday, in order:

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Sundar!

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Toe Fungus and Pinocchio

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Larry! (Wake Up, Sergey!)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Here is a video I did while I was attending and liveblogging the Google launch of and press conference for its new “not-a-Windows-killer” Chrome browser, held at its Mountain View, Calif., HQ yesterday morning.

Google (GOOG) released its own software to navigate the Internet yesterday, setting itself up in yet another bruising competition with Microsoft (MSFT).

In the video, I reveal my secret Google parking spot, survey the media scrum, bother a Google PR guy, check out snacks while discussing Chrome with blogger John Furrier, listen to various Googlers–including Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin–talk about the effort, interview Chrome project honcho Google VP Sundar Pichal (and ask him about when the Mac version is coming) and make fun of Google furniture.

All in a day’s work for BoomTown!

Here’s the video:

Also, here are the links to three blog posts I did live from the launch yesterday, in order:

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Sundar!

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Toe Fungus and Pinocchio

Liveblogging From the Google Chrome Launch: Hello, Larry! (Wake Up, Sergey!)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Finally, Google Co-Founder Larry Page takes the microphone and thanks the Chrome browser team and compliments them for their efforts.

This is–as anyone on the receiving end of Page’s sometimes pointed manner knows (and BoomTown has been)–a big deal.

Page also starts to talk about how browser choice and innovation could make the planet a better place.

Of course! World peace through better browsing!

Then he moves on to questions from the media, bringing some of the Chrome team up to the stage.

There’s a sequence of very serious questions on how to move tabs, privacy, mobile issues, WebKit, bug testing, Incognito, distribution plans and ongoing support for Mozilla’s Firefox (yes, it will continue–plus, Mozilla HQ is across the street! Hmmm…).

Ooops–the other Google (GOOG) Co-Founder, Sergey Brin, suddenly arrives late. He slips into the lineup of “Inside the Actors Studio”-type chairs, looking like he just woke up, in what is a classic move by Microsoft’s Bill Gates that I like to call the “bed-head maneuver.” (I like the spanking red Crocs though!)

It’s a sleepy ruse, as it turns out, as Brin deftly deflects a question about whether Chrome is an operating system for the Web, given that Internet navigation software has become so integral to consumer behavior.

As in, a Windows killer!

Nope, says Brin (full video answer to come), totally ignoring my dubious look.

The distribution question is key, of course, since Google will want to get Chrome out there. So what’s the secret sauce? Because it is a “great product,” says Page.

As to why Google was doing this, VP Sundar Pichal said the search giant wanted to “start from scratch” in the browser game. Like baking a really good cake, one would assume.

When no reporter would get up and ask the obvious what-about-tweaking-Microsoft question, I finally did and also asked about the business plan for Chrome–as in, how will it help Google make more money?

Both Brin and Page answer again that it’s all about providing choice and also keeping the Web open, which will spur usage, which will rain more magical moolah down on the Googleplex.

Also (and video to come on this too), Brin later adds, Google never thinks of Microsoft (MSFT).

Well, at least on that issue it seems we’re back to Pinocchio–the long-nosed version–again.

Soon to come: BoomTown’s Chrome Launch video and one of just the sleepy-as-a-fox Brin on Chrome!

Until then, here’s the exclusive review in his Personal Technology column of the new Google Chrome browser by AllThingsD.com’s Walt Mossberg, which was published at the same time as the news of its product launch was announced by the search behemoth this morning.

Walt’s reaction is mixed:

“My verdict: Chrome is a smart, innovative browser that, in many common scenarios, will make using the Web faster, easier and less frustrating. But this first version–which is just a beta, or test, release–is rough around the edges and lacks some common browser features Google plans to add later.”

Anyone can now download Chrome, but Walt has been testing it for a week. He also reviews Microsoft’s newest version of its powerful Internet Explorer, called IE8, which he likes better than Chrome.

Money quote: “The second beta version of IE8 is the best edition of Internet Explorer in years. It is packed with new features of its own, some of which are similar to those in Chrome, and some of which, in my view, top Chrome’s features.”

A little tarnish on the Chrome, it seems.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Now, we have two Googlers, who are demoing Google’s new Chrome browser and its features and user interface.

“Friendly” tabs, knowing your history better graphically, auto-typing, simplicity, easier downloading with a new window that one guy is calling a real app like “Pinocchio, because we wanted to build a real boy.”

Well, Pinocchio was wood for most of that story, but I like the effort!

Also, they show off the “Incognito” feature, where you can hide Web searches you don’t want others to see, which basically means porn and Barry Manilow fan sites.

Except the Google (GOOG) guys use a toe fungus search!

This is gross, although hiding toe fungus is a good idea related to Web navigation software.

Now, another smart-looking guy comes on, who looks like the other guys, and discusses the architecture, including rendering, security and so forth.

Also a speed test, from another Google guy, from Denmark, where Google’s Chrome–incredibly–beats Microsoft’s Internet Explorer! It is like one of those blind taste test commercials on television.

My mind starts to wander and I wonder if Microsoft Founder Bill Gates is watching this and getting plenty steamed up north at Microsoft (MSFT) HQ.

At this point, I suggest you please watch the Webcast of this demo to listen to the details, available through both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer.

Because once the Googlers start talking “plug-in bugs,” I start staring at Google co-founder Larry Page–who is here sitting with with top Google exec Marissa Mayer off to the side–to see if both are paying rapt attention.

They are, natch. (I should have eaten a tasty pastry.)

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

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 reviewed by my esteemed colleague Walt Mossberg (Cliff Notes on that: he liked it a lot, but it’s not perfect, although he thinks the $400 Dash signifies a leap ahead in the arena).

A longtime user of such devices–make that a longtime disgruntled user–I have always been annoyed that car navigation has been so removed from the digital and connected revolution taking place everywhere else.

Being able to grab information from the Web and also send it to a device seems an obvious move, so I am glad someone has made it. I am also interested in Dash’s use of devices to help inform the whole system about traffic problems, which will presumably work better as more Dash devices are on the road.

In fact, I am in Los Angeles right now–the epicenter of traffic congestion–and I brought a Dash unit to see how well that works. And I also sent a map of the hot spots from the HBO series, “Entourage.” First stop for breakfast after avoiding traffic on Fairfax: Canter’s, the very funky deli the “boys” get food from.

My review: The knishes were delicious and I was not annoyed either, since I was not stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic getting to them.

Here’s a video I did while visiting Dash’s HQ earlier this week: