Google just released their popular Google Latitude for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Google Latitude is currently available as a feature of Google Maps for mobile or as an iGoogle gadget for your PC.

In order to begin using the feature on your iPhone, you first must join Latitude with your Google account. Then you simply add the friends you want to start sharing your location with. They can see your location and you can see their location. Parents should love this, as a way to stay in touch with your kids. To try Google Latitude on your iPhone, type google.com/latitude into your iPhone's browser.

Unfortunately, since there is no mechanism for applications to run in the background on an iPhone (which applies to browser-based web apps as well), there are no continuous background location updates as on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. But since background location updating uses a lot of data, you may not need an unlimited data plan to use this feature on your iPhone.

Nevertheless, your location is updated every time you start the application and it is continuously updated while you run the app in the foreground. The Google Latitude web app currently supports iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.0 or above. It's available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. What do you think, leave a comment.

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