1. A computer-implemented user-interface system for incrementally finding and presenting one or more content items in response to keystrokes entered by a user on an input device having a known layout of overloaded keys selected from a set of key layouts, each overloaded key having a corresponding set of alphanumeric symbols, the system comprising: a database stored in a computer memory, the database containing content items and corresponding descriptive terms that characterize the content items; a computer memory comprising instructions for causing a computer system to: receive keystrokes from the user and build a string corresponding to incremental entries by the user, each item in the string having the set of alphanumeric symbols associated with a corresponding keystroke; map the string to the database to find the most likely content items corresponding to the incremental entries, the mapping being in accordance with a defined error model, the error model corresponding to the known layout of overloaded keys of the input device; wherein the error model associates the string with: (i) suggested corrections for typographic errors corresponding to incremental user entries, wherein suggested corrections are derived by replacing characters in the string resulting from one or more accidently pressed adjacent keys; (ii) suggested corrections for orthographic errors corresponding to incremental user entries, wherein suggested corrections are derived by replacing one or more characters in the string resulting from phonetic substitutions; and wherein the most likely content items are ordered and presented on a display device in accordance with defined ordering criteria; such that the user-interface system receives ambiguous entries from the user and presents the most likely matching content items.
1. A computer-implemented user-interface system for incrementally finding and presenting one or more content items in response to keystrokes entered by a user on an input device having a known layout of overloaded keys selected from a set of key layouts, each overloaded key having a corresponding set of alphanumeric symbols, the system comprising: a database stored in a computer memory, the database containing content items and corresponding descriptive terms that characterize the content items; a computer memory comprising instructions for causing a computer system to: receive keystrokes from the user and build a string corresponding to incremental entries by the user, each item in the string having the set of alphanumeric symbols associated with a corresponding keystroke; map the string to the database to find the most likely content items corresponding to the incremental entries, the mapping being in accordance with a defined error model, the error model corresponding to the known layout of overloaded keys of the input device; wherein the error model associates the string with: (i) suggested corrections for typographic errors corresponding to incremental user entries, wherein suggested corrections are derived by replacing characters in the string resulting from one or more accidently pressed adjacent keys; (ii) suggested corrections for orthographic errors corresponding to incremental user entries, wherein suggested corrections are derived by replacing one or more characters in the string resulting from phonetic substitutions; and wherein the most likely content items are ordered and presented on a display device in accordance with defined ordering criteria; such that the user-interface system receives ambiguous entries from the user and presents the most likely matching content items. 4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the error model includes generating variants based on at least one of inserting, deleting, substituting, and transposing one or more characters of the descriptive terms that characterize the content items.