The iPhone's Maps app and Google Maps on the Web are great tools for figuring out how to get somewhere, but only if you know the precise--or at least rough--location of your destination. (Obvious, I know. Hear me out.) But what about those times when you're out and about, trying to meet up with a friend, and neither side can figure out exactly where the other is? Solving that problem is the goal of a slew of new apps for the iPhone.

These apps--Breadcrumbs, GeoNumbers, Here I Am, Here I Am (yes, two apps with the same name), Over Here, and Ya Mapped--take advantage of the iPhone 3G's GPS functionality to determine your location and then let you email that location, as a Google Maps URL, to anyone else. (You can edit the subject and body of these automatically-generated email messages.) The recipient can then open the URL in Google Maps in their Web browser to see your location and get directions to you. Even better, if the recipient receives the email on an iPhone, the link will open in the Maps application, which can also pinpoint their location and show exactly how to get to you; there's no need to find a computer with an Internet connection. It's a simple function, but one that can be quite useful.

(Unfortunately, none of the apps can send the URL via SMS. It's also worth noting that these apps do work on the iPod touch and the original iPhone, but not nearly as well, due to the fact that these models use nearby WiFi networks, instead of GPS, to determine location--you'll get much-less-precise results, and even then only if there are known WiFi networks nearby.)

While we won't be formally reviewing these six apps, I did test them all; here are my impressions. But first, a tip: It's a good idea to check your location in the iPhone's Maps app before using one of these programs, because there are places the iPhone's GPS feature doesn't work well. If you're currently in a place where the phone is accurate only to within 10 miles or so, you could end up sending your friend somewhere else entirely.

I found Gareth Townsend's free Here I Am 1.2 (the Here I Am app with an icon that looks like a white pushpin on a red background) and Ed Lea's US$1 Over Here 1.1 to be too inaccurate to recommend; neither waited long enough to let the iPhone's GPS circuitry get a good reading, resulting in "locations" that were often 2000 feet (or more) from where I actually was. The other apps allow you to decide how long the GPS feature chugs away. Given enough time--a minute or so--the others correctly placed me inside my house, with location coordinates within 10 feet or so of my actual location.

For more Mac news, visit Macworld. Story copyright Mac Publishing, LLC.