Ever use BrightKite, Shizzow, Fire Eagle, trying to find out where your friends are and how you can meet up with them, only to feel a little let down with the quality of these applications?

Personally, I’ve always longed for a Twitter-like map view that gave me presence information on where my friends are and what they’re doing. Sort of like a cross between Twitter and FireEagle, overlaid on a map.

Well, apparently I’m not the only one who wished this. The fine folks out of Espoo have introduced Nokia Friend View. After you accept friends and build up your own little social network, you can use Friend View to see where your friends are and see their last micro-blog (or Tweet) from that location.

The arrows on the map are color coded, so green means they recently checked-in at that location and grey indicates the update from the location is older.

The application uses GPS to pin-point your location, but if a GPS signal is not available (if you’re in a place with tall buildings), you can select your location manually.

Also, you can use Friend View from a web browser too – meaning you can use Friend View on your mobile or on your computer!

Watch the video below for more info: