Can't find your mates in a heaving pub? Well, a new service allows you to pinpoint their exact whereabouts electronically.

The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder - or SNIFF - uses handset signals to locate friends and partners wherever they are in the UK.

The technology is similar to that used by police to track down suspects or missing children via their mobile and at a cost of 50p per sniff, is available to millions of people through social networking website Facebook and various mobile phone operators.

Any fears over privacy and abuse have already been quashed as Useful Networks, the US company behind the technology, says the service is for over-18s only and you can choose whether to be visible or invisible.

It will cost mobile users 50p per sniff and has already gone down a storm in Sweden, where 80,000 people have signed up.

However, the service should not be relied upon by parents to track their young children because the service will only place a location within a radius of several hundred metres.

Brian Levin, chief executive of Useful Networks, said: "People are spending increasing amounts of time managing and mapping their friendship groups online, so why not literally map them offline too.

"If you've ever found yourself stuck at home because your mates down the pub couldn't hear your calls above all the noise or missed out on an impromptu night out because you didn't realise that friends had been out and about near where you were, then sniff is for you.

"Sniff is for people to use within their close friendship circles. It's easy, fun and it works. And because you have absolute control over if, how and when your location information is shared, it is also very safe too."

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