Wik-Off: Which Wikipedia App To Use?

I’ve used Wikopedia but not often since a recent study revealed the fact that, while convenient, reliability and accuracy is, at times, … questionable.

The article said-

The study did reveal inaccuracies in eight of the nine entries and exposed major flaws in at least two of the nine Wikipedia articles. Overall, Wikipedia’s accuracy rate was 80 percent compared with 95-96 percent accuracy within the other sources. This study does support the claim that Wikipedia is less reliable than other reference resources. Furthermore, the research found at least five unattributed direct quotations and verbatim text from other sources with no citations.

Nevertheless, a whole lot of people rely on Wikopedia and the App Store offers a number of ways to access it. The three main choices are-
– The free resident Google App
-The free Wikopanion App
-The $.99 iWik App

How did the three stack up? Let’s review them via a brief compare and contrast.

 I made the comparison by doing three different searches on each. I searched "iPhone", "iMac" and "president". Here are the results.

The Google App Results:

The Google App required a quick setting  change so that it searches Wikipedia. It is not a difficult change (you go to the small triangle in the upper left corner)  but it is an inconvenience. Once the setting is adjusted it is easy to search Wikipedia. The results are quick but, unfortunately as with everything returned from the Google App it is not returned in an iPhone optimized format and is therefore difficult to read. The result searches look like this.

iWik Results:

iWik has a nice clean interface and requires no adjustment. You can simply input the desired query, hit search and it returns result in an easy to read iPhone optimized format. The problem with iWik is that, of the three searches I ran, only one returned results. The others requested more details. Annoying. More annoying, in fact, than having to adjust the setting in the Google App. The results look like this:

Update: The eagle eyes of one of our readers raised the questions as to whether or not I was, at times, unintentionally adding a space after the search word. It turns out that that was exactly what was happening. Without or without the space, however, the other two apps completed the search accurately.

Wikipanion Results:

Of the three Wikipanion was the clear winner. It is a dedicated Wikipedia search search that requires no adjustment prior to use. After inputing the query, the results  are returned accurately (unlike iWik) and in iPhone optimized format (unlike the Google App). Oh, and best of all, it is free. The results look like this:

Quick Take: Google App

Value: Good
Would I Buy Again: Yes
Learning Curve: Small- so long as you know how to change the setting
Who is it for: Anyone
What I like: brings a Wikipedia search within  decent overall Google search app.
What I Don’t: Requires setting change, returns result in hard-to-read format
Final Statement: Good for Wikipedia search. Not great.

Quick Take: iWiki

Value: Low
Would I Buy Again: Nope
Learning Curve: Small
Who is it for: People who want to search Wikipedia (and then search again when the results aren’t accurate)
What I like: Nothing
What I Don’t: Paying to worry about whether or not I add a space after a word? No thanks
Final Statement:  Not worth it even it free.

Quick Take: Wikipanion

Value: High
Would I Buy Again: Yes
Learning Curve: Low
Who is it for: Everyone
What I like: Free, easy to use, results returned in easy to read format
What I Don’t: Nothing
Final Statement:  This is the Wikipedia app of choice