Google+ iPhone App brings new social networking site to Apple users

Google has gained approval from Apple to offer a Google+ iPhone application through the App Store, bringing the search firm's new social networking service to iPhone owners.

The Google+ iPhone App is designed for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 models, and provides direct access to the Google service from the Apple handsets.

The client software supports the iOS 4 platform, but support for the larger display of the iPad tablet is not listed.

Google+ is widely considered to be Google's best effort to date at taking on Facebook, and allows subscribers to group friends into various 'Circles' through which status updates and other posts can be displayed or blocked depending on user settings.

Early reviews of Google+ suggest that the site shows some promise, but is limited by the lack of a major third-party developer community.

The service has not been without its early hiccups either. Initial trials proved so popular that Google had to temporarily close access to the beta service.

Scammers capitalised on the confusion to launch a run of spam messages posing as Google+ invitations hoping to lure victims to third-party commercial sites.