Abstract: The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving an audio signal and initiating speech recognition tasks by a plurality of speech recognition systems (SRS's). Each SRS is configured to generate a recognition result specifying possible speech included in the audio signal and a confidence value indicating a confidence in a correctness of the speech result. The method also includes completing a portion of the speech recognition tasks including generating one or more recognition results and one or more confidence values for the one or more recognition results, determining whether the one or more confidence values meets a confidence threshold, aborting a remaining portion of the speech recognition tasks for SRS's that have not completed generating a recognition result, and outputting a final recognition result based on at least one of the generated one or more speech results.

Abstract: A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes prompting a user to provide a type of business and an identifier of a specific business, receiving from the user a speech input having information about the type of business and the identifier, and recognizing, using a speech recognition module, the identifier based on the type of business.

Abstract: A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes selecting a subset of speech recognition language models from a larger set of speech recognition language models based on a type of business provided by a user, identifying weight values for the selected language models, and recognizing an identifier of a specific business in a speech input from the user based on the selected language models and the weight values.

Abstract: A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes receiving category-business pairs, each category-business pair including a business category and a specific business, and establishing a data structure having nodes based on the category-business pairs. Each node of the data structure is associated with one or more business categories and a speech recognition language model for recognizing specific businesses associated with the one or more businesses categories.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method includes receiving a voice search request from a client device, identifying an entity responsive to the voice search request and contact information for the entity, and automatically adding the contact information to a contact list of a user associated with the client device.

Abstract: A request for listing information is received, and if the request is determined to be for an unspecific listing, a number of ads are served prior to delivery of the requested listings. If the request is determined to not be for an unspecific business, a lesser number (or zero) ads are served prior to delivery of the requested listings. The determination of the request as being unspecific can be made by comparing the request to a list of unspecific requests, determining if the request exactly matches a listing, or by other means. Ads served result in the advertiser being assessed a per-impression charge.

Abstract: A method and system for barge-in acknowledgement are disclosed. A prompt is attenuated upon detection of speech. The speech is accepted and the prompt is terminated if the speech corresponds to an allowable response.