Google Friday a voice recognition application for the iPhone that lets users speak search terms into the phone such as "restaurant." The technology is similar to voice recognition software for the BlackBerry that Microsoft introduced at the Web 2.0 conference in April via its TellMe subsidiary.

On the flip side, Microsoft on Thursday the Windows Live Wave 3 set of consumer services, a Live Wave API called Project Silkroad, and struck partnerships with social networking sites such as Flickr, PhotoBucket, Twitter and Yelp. The announcement came roughly a week after Google's celebrated its one-year anniversary.

OpenSocial is a set of APIs that let developers create applications that run across many social networking sites instead of having to create a version of the applications for each individual site.

With Windows Live, users will be able to share and interact with friends online and integrate data from their Live tools such as Live Hotmail, Live Photos and Live People.

Brian Hall, general manager for Windows Live, told the that Microsoft is trying to create a central hub where people can interact easily, whether sharing photos or planning events.