SALT is an XML based API that brings speech interactions to the Web. Starting as a research project that aims at applying the Web interaction model for spoken dialog, SALT has evolved into an industry standard with more than 70 companies and universities participating in advancing the standard. The design philosophy and brief overview of SALT is published here.
Microsoft has announced many SALT based products, including SALT aware desktop IE and pocket IE add-ins. This page shows you how straightforward speech programming is with SALT.