Google wasn’t content to end their Tuesday with the unveiling of Chrome OS and the Chrome Web Store -- they slipped a Google Latitude app for the iPhone past the goalie, as it were. But don’t go looking for it, because it’s already gone.

TechCrunch is reporting that an official Google Latitude app for the iPhone popped up in the iTunes Store on Tuesday night -- at least in Japan. It appeared that perhaps the long-awaited app would start appearing in other App Stores around the world, especially when the app screenshots and description were in English to begin with, but just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

You’ll recall that Google claimed to be “evaluating” a native iPhone app for Latitude after the launch of iOS 4.0, thanks to the ability to do background location, which is pretty much required to make such an app in the first place. An HTML5 version of Latitude has been available since July, 2009, but much like the company’s previous Google Voice HTML5 app, it wasn’t the best experience.

Last year, it appeared that Apple was the villain, with Google explaining that Latitude was strictly a web app because that’s what Apple wanted -- of course, those were different days, when the search giant couldn’t even get their own Google Voice native app onto iTunes.

Cut to this week, and it appears a Google Latitude native app does indeed exist and is probably on more than few devices in Japan. TechCrunch notes that “it was likely an accident that it went live in the first place” and suggests that a proper worldwide release may be imminent, so we’ll all have to wait and see.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

(Image courtesy of TechCrunch)