WikiNear.com - Mobile Site-seeing with Wikipedia

Say you’re new to town or just on vacation and have no idea where to go—where to eat, what to do, where to find the cheapest deals, etc. If you’ve got Wikinear, you don’t have to do any research. It’ll do it for you. Wikinear combines Wikipedia with Yahoo’s new Fire Eagle service, Oauth, a service for secure, private access and GoogleMaps to locate where you are. Once located, it displays the five nearest destination spots from Wikipedia. It was designed for use with your mobile so that wherever you go, you’ll be informed without having to hit a guidebook, internet shop or even a local. The service is currently only in private beta so the site is pretty bare and usable only if you’re luck enough to get an invite. It works with FireEagle, so you’ll need an account there as well.

“wikinear.com shows Wikipedia pages near you, based on your location according to Yahoo! Fire Eagle. The site is optimised for use on a mobile phone.”

Wikinear has potential once it gets more users and more data. You can use it for vacations or business trips. And it’s free so it may just be better than taking and paying for a tour.

Will users find Wikinear satisfying? Will it be appealing enough to gain critical mass? How will FireEagle attract users?