11.   First of all, these voice portals offer only a limited selection of information, such as traffic, weather, stocks and sports scores.

12.   How voice portals plan to make money varies.

13.   However, to access voice portals, customers usually must dial a toll-free number and wait for the call to connect.

14.   If only a small percentage of those were used to dial into voice portals, executives say, the revenue would be substantial.

15.   In its vision, you could hear spoken versions of millions of existing Web sites, not just a few dozen services voice portals have decided to offer.

16.   In terms of content, Audiopoint is not as robust as some of the other voice portals mentioned here.

17.   Like the Internet industry a few years ago, voice portals must teach consumers that they need their services.

18.   Lycos, of Waltham, Mass., had planned to roll out the voice portal in the autumn quarter through its Quack contract.

19.   Most voice portals use speech recognition technology and a computer language that digitizes the spoken word and searches Internet servers based on the commands.

20.   One consumer who is pleased with her voice portal is Juliette Silvers, a blind woman from Minneapolis.