Method of and system for selecting and presenting content based on user identification

A user-interface system for selecting and presenting a collection of content items in which the presentation is ordered at least in part based on inferring which user of a relatively small collection of users is using an input device, the system comprising:

• a catalog of a set of content items;
• a set of preference information for each user of the collection of users, each set of preference information indicating content item preferences of a corresponding user;
• a set of user keypress biometric models, each model representing expected keypress activity for the corresponding user;
• input logic for receiving incremental input entered by a user for incrementally identifying desired content items, the incremental input corresponding to a sequence of keys pressed by the user on the input device;
• monitoring logic responsive to the incremental input entered by the user for monitoring and characterizing keypress activity to biometrically characterize the user, the monitoring and characterizing keypress activity including using a linear combination of at least two statistical distributions to characterize the keypress activity;
• analyzing logic for analyzing the keypress activity to find the closest match to one of the keypress biometric models;
• inferring logic for using the closest match to infer which user of the collection of users entered the incremental input;
• selection logic for selecting preference information corresponding to the inferred user;
• search logic responsive to selecting the preference information and the incremental input entered by the user, selecting and presenting a collection of content items in an order that portrays as relatively more relevant those content items that more closely match the set of preferences of the inferred user.