Google Maps is back for iPhone

After several painful months, Google Maps is back in the Apple App Store.

Apple users were horrified when, with the update to iOS 6 in October, the ever-trusty Google Maps disappeared off iPhones and iPads, only to be replaced by a problematic new Apple Maps.

The new Google Maps for iOS is not the same as the old Google Maps, but instead takes the years of Google data that makes its map programs so powerful, tailored specifically to Apple's gestures and interface.

Public transportation is back (although no biking directions, for now) and adds the turn-by-turn directions features that had been missing from previous iOS versions.

The app is agile and trim: features like 3D flyover are kept out in favor of the improved detail that was missing in Apple Maps.

The world rejoices.