1. A computer-implemented method for selecting and presenting content items based on user input, the method comprising: providing access to a set of content items, the content items being associated with metadata that describes a corresponding content item; receiving a first input intended by the user to identify at least one desired content item; determining that a portion of the first input has a measure of importance that exceeds a threshold value; providing feedback to the user identifying the portion of the first input; receiving second input from the user that is subsequent to the first input; determining a measure of similarity between the portion of the first input and the second input; comparing the measure of similarity with a threshold; upon a condition when the measure of similarity is determined to be above the threshold, determining that the portion of the first input is phonetically similar to the second input; upon a condition when the measure of similarity is determined to not be above the threshold, determining that the portion of the first input is not phonetically similar to the second input; based on determining that the portion of the first input is phonetically similar to the second input, determining an alternative query input by altering the first input based on the second input; based on determining that the portion of the first input is not phonetically similar to the second input, determining the alternative query input by supplementing the first input with the second input; selecting a subset of content items from the set of content items based on comparing the alternative query input and the metadata associated with the subset of content items; and presenting the subset of content items to the user.