16. A distributed method of recognizing and responding in real time to a user question posed within an application program executing on a client device, comprising: receiving query data generated by the client device over a network, the query data being carried over at least a portion of the network using an Internet-based protocol; considering a context experienced by a user within the application and loading one or both of appropriate grammars or dictionaries for the context; processing the query data at a server device to form a query text associated with the user question using the appropriate grammars and dictionaries; submitting the query text to a natural language engine and a database engine; processing the query text with the natural language engine to identify one or more word phrases present in the query text; forming a combined database query including both the query text and the word phrases identified using the natural language engine; retrieving a set of question/answer pairs using the combined query; evaluating the set of question/answer pairs by comparing word phrases in the set of question/answer pairs with the word phrases from the query text to identify at least one question/answer pair that best matches the user question; and providing an answer to the user question in real-time over a distributed query system, the answer being determined from the question/answer pair that best matches the user question.
18. The method of claim 16 , wherein only a single answer is presented to the user within a portable client device interface.