A computer implemented user-interface method of selecting and presenting a collection of content items in which the presentation is ordered at least in part based on analyzing user selections of content items to learn the content preferences of the user according to a context within which the user selected the content and using the learned content preferences to select and order subsequent user content search results when the user is within the same context, the method comprising:
- providing access to a set of content items, each content item having at least one associated descriptive term to describe the content item, the content items of the set being organized into categories of related content items;
- receiving incremental input entered by the user for incrementally identifying desired content items of the set, wherein the incremental input includes at least one character in a series of characters;
- in response to each character of the incremental input entered by the user, presenting a subset of content items of the set to the user;
- receiving actions from the user selecting content items of the subset;
- analyzing the date, day, and time of day of the user selection actions and analyzing the descriptive terms of the selected content items to learn content preferences of the user and to learn a plurality of periodicities of user selections of similar content items, wherein similarity is determined by comparing the descriptive terms of the selected content item with the previously selected content item, and wherein each periodicity indicates an amount of time between user selections of similar content items relative to a reference point;
- associating each learned periodicity with the respective similar content items and the respective descriptive terms of the similar content items;
- determining the context in which the user performed the selection actions, the context including a geographic location of the user at the time of the selection actions and at least one of:
- date, day, and time of day;
- associating the determined contexts of the user selection actions, including the geographic location of the user at the time of the selection actions, with the user content preferences learned from the corresponding user selections;
- in response to receiving subsequent incremental input entered by the user, determining a context of said subsequent incremental input and selecting and ordering a collection of content items from the set based on a comparison of the descriptive terms of the content items of the collection with the learned content preferences of the user associated with the determined context in which the user entered the subsequent incremental input and further based on (i) promoting the ranking of those content items associated with descriptive terms further associated with periodicities similar to the date, day, and time of day of the subsequent incremental input, and (ii) promoting the ranking of those content items associated with a first periodicity similar to the date, day, and time of day of the subsequent incremental input relative to the ranking of those content items associated with a second periodicity similar to the date, day, and time of day of the subsequent incremental input;
- and
- presenting said collection of content items to the user on a display screen.