I think that their motivations are different too. Wanting to build companies that might one day compete with Google is unthinkable; so one must assume these are ventures that either do something totally different from Google's current businesses; or are somehow attractive as "experiments" Google doesn't have the focus to perform itself (the last obvious category is "companies Google wishes to acquire"; but smart founders who happen to have such an idea would not use Google Ventures simply because of the conflict of interest).
Btw, is this typical of corporate venture funds or is Google trying something new?
Wanting to build companies that might one day compete with Google is unthinkable
I don't see why that would be true. Nearly any web company might one day "compete with Google", which would rule out a lot of potential startups. Investing in or buying out a competitor is a long-established strategy used by many companies.
Btw, is this typical of corporate venture funds or is Google trying something new?