It’s been formally announced that Google is teaming with Intel and Sony to create Google TV, a bold effort to integrate its Android software into TVs, Blu-ray players, and a Google TV-top box simply called a “Buddy Box.”

If it sounds like an endeavor aimed squarely at Apple TV, you would be correct.

Google TV, however, is poised and ready for battle with entities beyond Apple. In many ways, Google is taking on the cable and broadcast television industries with a new – and potentially revolutionary – effort that will link the Internet with televisions in a manner never before seen in the digital age.

“With Google TV, consumers will now be able to search and watch an expanded universe of content available from a variety of sources including TV providers, the web, their personal content libraries, and mobile applications,” Google gushed in a statement about the launch.

“The Google TV experience is complemented by the ability to watch streaming video from leading content platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube. Google TV will also have the capability to run apps from the Android Market.”

The arrival of Google TV could be a significant development in both the worlds of entertainment and advertising, as content providers and mobile marketers must now challenge themselves to address a new way in which millions of users may soon absorb content.

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Dashing away from the Google I/O keynote as fast as our feet would carry us, we scored the very first look at Logitech’s Google TV companion box. While we’ll share full details when we catch a breath, here’s the scoop: the box extends the full functionality of a Logitech Harmony remote and a WiFi access point to your TV, providing not only Google TV but also allowing you to control your entire entertainment system (including DVR) with a still-in-development keyboard / touchpad remote or an iPhone or Android smartphone app over WiFi. Hit the gallery below for a taste of what the little set-top box can do, and rest assured we’ve got more info on the way.

Update: Now with video, after the break.

When we got to Logitech’s demo space, we expected to see a keyboard and mouse. To our surprise, the Logitech product manager pulled out a Nexus One and iPhone. He explained that the companion box has all the technology of Logitech’s $400 Harmony 900 remote and extends it to your handset over WiFi. Several scrollable pages of dedicated buttons let that particular iPhone control not only the Google browser but also a Samsung TV, Onkyo receiver and TiVo set top box, and the product manager showed us that there were three additional control schemes (including a touchscreen D-pad, gesture swipe pane and virtual keyboard) that could be activated simply by shaking the phone. Should you not have a more modern smartphone, it won’t be your only option by far — the box will have an optional RF keyboard / touchpad available at launch, and a pair of USB ports in back allow users to connect dongles for 2.4GHz peripherals. In addition to standard Google TV functions, Logitech said the box would come with Logitech’s free 1080p 720p video chat solution, Vid — though you’ll have to shell out extra for thewebcams required to make it work.

The unit itself is based on Intel’s CE4100 “Sodaville” Atom processor, with this particular chip operating at 1.2GHz, and the board features 4GB of memory and 802.11n WiFi. In addition to the aforementioned twin USB sockets, the rear I/O panel features wired LAN jack and two IR headers for additional connectivity (the former presumably affording the system direct IP control over DVRs) and has a pair of HDMI 1.3 ports that handle all visual content, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound transferred via either HDMI or S/PDIF out. If your home entertainment setup is entirely wired with HDMI, you’ll find the unit allows full digital passthrough; if your sources use any other kind of jack (component, composite, etcetera) you may need a receiver of some sort; reps available couldn’t tell us if the box required HDCP to stream content.

Update 3: Logitech just informed us that Vid will actually run at a resolution of 720p.

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Administrators can now download the tool from Google and move 200 users per hour from Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 to Google Apps, including e-mail, contact, and calendar data, said Chris Vander May, senior product manager for Google Apps. It will be available for Google Apps Premier Edition customers as well as Google Apps for Education customers.

Just as Microsoft is throwing resources into Bing and Internet search in hopes of denting Google’s enormous market share, Google is trying to do the same thing to Microsoft’s huge advantage in office productivity software. Over 25 million users are on Google Apps, according to the company, which sounds like a lot but is a fraction of the businesses still using Microsoft products.

Last year Google released a similar tool for letting administrators enable Google Apps but allowing their users to keep their Outlook clients.

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Google’s certainly made some enterprise inroads with Google Apps, and now it’s opened the door for other cloud-based service providers to build on that success: it’s launching Google Apps Marketplace to sell third-party web apps that integrate with the Apps suite. The apps are sold as a subscription, with both monthly and annual pricing, and the billing is all handled by Google. Since it’s all targeted at the enterprise, the apps themselves are pretty dry — we’re talking notables like Intuit Online Payroll, eFax, and TripIt — but it’s pretty easy to see how Google could build a similar consumer-level marketplace into Gmail and Google Calendar sometime in the future. And then? Skynet. Video after the break.