10. A system for recognizing a speech utterance from a user at a network server system comprising: a first routine adapted for automatically evaluating an amount of computing resources available at the network server system for performing speech recognition operations during a connection on speech related data transmitted by a client device being used by the user; wherein said speech related data corresponds to partially recognized speech data; a second routine adapted for automatically performing a first set of speech recognition operations during said connection at the network server system on said speech related data from the client device in response to the evaluating of the first routine; wherein said first set of speech recognition operations are specified during an initialization period and are configurable on a connection-by-connection basis with each client device; and further wherein full recognition of the speech utterance is performed across a distributed client-server system, with said speech related data being mapped to a predefined query/answer pair stored in a query database maintained by an operator of the network server system.
10. A system for recognizing a speech utterance from a user at a network server system comprising: a first routine adapted for automatically evaluating an amount of computing resources available at the network server system for performing speech recognition operations during a connection on speech related data transmitted by a client device being used by the user; wherein said speech related data corresponds to partially recognized speech data; a second routine adapted for automatically performing a first set of speech recognition operations during said connection at the network server system on said speech related data from the client device in response to the evaluating of the first routine; wherein said first set of speech recognition operations are specified during an initialization period and are configurable on a connection-by-connection basis with each client device; and further wherein full recognition of the speech utterance is performed across a distributed client-server system, with said speech related data being mapped to a predefined query/answer pair stored in a query database maintained by an operator of the network server system. 12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the client device is a portable electronic appliance adapted for INTERNET communications.