Exciting times ahead for sofa addicts like me. Today Google officially announced the launch of Google TV. Set top boxes and TVs with the application built in are to be launched in the US in autumn. Here is a neat summary by @TheNextWeb.

OK, the video doesn’t make it sound that revolutionary, but it’s an obvious extension of the current restricted options available to watch streaming video or Video on Demand through your main TV set (hooking up your laptop, Sky Player through Xbox Live, iPlayer on PS3 and Wii, etc.).

Through IPTV applications, like Google TV and the forthcoming Project Canvas (pushed through by the OFT today), the user experience will become so much more straightforward, and viewing of online video content (and online video ads), which is already growing fast, will go through the roof.

Soon, the whole world will be ad-served. The cookie monster will have a field day.