Tellme has been at voice recognition since it launched as a voice portal in 2000.

"The difference [from Google] comes in with the focus that we have," says Dariusz Paczuski, the head of Tellme's mobile division. "Speech recognition is hard to get right. We have been very successful focusing on specific problems we are trying to solve -- local, business search, sports."

The company added a stock service last month and powers 45% of the 411 in the United States.

"As soon as you broaden [your focus] and open it up you are prone to errors. It is a tough challenge technologically speaking," he says.

Users install a free browser-like application that communicates with the Web-based Tellme range of services. Google's voice service is an add-on to the search application it built for the iPhone.