Latitude geo-location service for the iPhone has just been released by Google. Although Apple forced Google to abandon its native iPhone app, citing some confusion with the already in place default Maps app.

The Latitude is very similar to BrighKite, just fire up the app and it will send your GPS coordinates to Google. You can also view maps showing the coordinates of your friends making finding them out in town on a Friday night much simpler.

Latitude has some limitations though, and you cant just set it and forget it. You can however use it to find friends nearby, but if your friends are using an iPhone you will only the location where they last loaded latitude. The iPhone version just quite simply doesn’t deliver the full Latitude experience. For more information go to arstechnica.com