Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for receiving a user's spoken search query that the system will incrementally recognize and identify search terms. After the query has been incrementally recognized, the system will use the search terms to retrieve a portion of the search results that are based on usable identified search terms. As the results are found, the system will then output at least part at least part of the retrieved portion of search results on the display prior to the user concluding his or her search query.