Summon Wikipedia on the Google Android G1

(Credit: Google)

WikiMobile Encyclopedia has been around for awhile for the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Pocket PC, so it's no surprise to see it formatted for the Google Android G1 phone.

Just as advertised, WikiMobile Encyclopedia crawls Wikipedia.com for articles, offering up predictive search queries as you type your term. You can also search Wikipedia for a random article or browse what's popular, especially if you have a few minutes to kill or are looking for a factoid to impress people at a dinner party.

Interestingly, instead of scrolling or flicking the results page vertically, the app slices the text into pages. You click "next" or flick the screen to the left to advance. It's too bad there isn't an option for those who prefer consuming their articles in one gulp instead of being force-fed bites.

Much of the program's functionality hides out in the center menu button where you can view just the article's pictures, a table of contents, and, where available, a bunch of quick facts. It's useful being able to bookmark pages for reference; e-mailing them to a friend is the next natural progression. It's a good app for playing information fetch, but we'd like to see it take advantage of more of the G1's features.

Get more of CNET's news and reviews on the T-Mobile G1 and Google Android apps.