Powerset, the San Francisco based search technology company, has introduced an iPhone application that searches Wikipedia.

The company hopes that the price drop on the new iPhone and the fact that Wikipedia is the web’s 3rd largest source of information (Nielsen Netratings) will boost interest in its iPhone application.

Users of iPhone’s should visit Powerset.com.

A few of the apps features:

* For searching Wikipedia, you can enter a topic, phrase, or question and get back Powerset results.

* Once you click on a search result, you will go to the Powerset-enhanced Wikipedia articles. The outline allows for easy navigation through the article and is derived from the Wikipedia outline.

* The Factz summary gives you an easy-to-read list of all of the Factz that Powerset was able to derive from the article, which often reads like a Cliff’s Note’s summary. This is great if you’re on the go and looking to quickly scan the information in the article.

* The search-within-the-page brings semantic search into the results page. You can search for keywords or you can search for questions, e.g. “who stole pat’s rocket” on the Achewood page.

And here are a few interesting factoids about Powerset and Apple:

* Dr. Bruce Horn, one of the original developers on the Macintosh and creator of the Macintosh Finder (see http://www.powerset.com/explore/go/what-did-bruce-horn-write%3F), is manager of Powerset’s Semantic Search Platform.

* More than a third of the company owns an iPhone (roughly equivalent to the number of PhDs working at Powerset) and a handful took the afternoon off on the day of the iPhone launch.