Don’t be surprised if a lot of iPhone users start to demonstrate a surprisingly good grasp of geography.  Google Earth for iPhone (and iPod touch) has been introduced, making it easier than ever for them to explore cities and research spaces.

Pretty much all of the important desktop features made it into the mobile version.  Users are able to browse around eight million geo-located photos in the Panoramio layer, view Wikipedia articles, and search for places and businesses anywhere in the world.

 Google Earth For iPhone

Then there are the extras.  A post on the LatLong Blog tells users, "Just swipe your finger across the screen and you fly to the other side of the globe; tilt your phone and your view tilts as well.  You can pinch to zoom in or out, or just double tap with one finger to zoom in and two fingers to zoom out.  We also integrated the My Location feature, so with a touch of a button, you can fly to where you are in the real world on your phone."

There is one potential problem with Google Earth for iPhone: it remains to be seen how many people want to look at stunning landscapes (or at least large maps) on very tiny screens.  A fresh report indicates that the photo nuts at Flickr love their iPhones, however, and the new software is getting great reviews.

Google Earth for iPhone is free, so we’d encourage you to check it out if you get the chance.