1. A method of incrementally identifying and selecting a television content item to be presented from a relatively large set of selectable television content items, the television content items being associated with descriptive terms that characterize the selectable television content items, the method comprising: using an ordering criteria to rank and associate subsets of television content items with corresponding strings of one or more descriptor prefix strings, each descriptor prefix string being a variable length string containing a subset of the characters of the descriptive terms that characterize the selectable television content items, wherein each descriptor prefix string contains less than all characters of the descriptive terms; subsequent to ranking and associating the television content items with strings of one or more descriptor prefix strings, receiving incremental text input entered by a user, the incremental text input including a first descriptor prefix of a word entered by the user for incrementally identifying at least one desired television content item of the relatively large set of television content items, wherein the first descriptor prefix contains less than all characters of the word the user is using to incrementally identify the at least one desired television content item; selecting and presenting on a display device the subset of television content items that is associated with the first descriptor prefix string; subsequent to receiving the first descriptor prefix, receiving subsequent incremental text input entered by the user, the subsequent incremental text input including a second descriptor prefix of a word entered by the user for incrementally identifying the at least one desired television content item and forming a string of prefixes including the first descriptor prefix and the second descriptor prefix in the order received, wherein the second descriptor prefix contains less than all characters of the word the user is using to incrementally identify the at least one desired television content item; and selecting and presenting on the display device the subset of television content items that is associated with the string of prefixes received.
1. A method of incrementally identifying and selecting a television content item to be presented from a relatively large set of selectable television content items, the television content items being associated with descriptive terms that characterize the selectable television content items, the method comprising: using an ordering criteria to rank and associate subsets of television content items with corresponding strings of one or more descriptor prefix strings, each descriptor prefix string being a variable length string containing a subset of the characters of the descriptive terms that characterize the selectable television content items, wherein each descriptor prefix string contains less than all characters of the descriptive terms; subsequent to ranking and associating the television content items with strings of one or more descriptor prefix strings, receiving incremental text input entered by a user, the incremental text input including a first descriptor prefix of a word entered by the user for incrementally identifying at least one desired television content item of the relatively large set of television content items, wherein the first descriptor prefix contains less than all characters of the word the user is using to incrementally identify the at least one desired television content item; selecting and presenting on a display device the subset of television content items that is associated with the first descriptor prefix string; subsequent to receiving the first descriptor prefix, receiving subsequent incremental text input entered by the user, the subsequent incremental text input including a second descriptor prefix of a word entered by the user for incrementally identifying the at least one desired television content item and forming a string of prefixes including the first descriptor prefix and the second descriptor prefix in the order received, wherein the second descriptor prefix contains less than all characters of the word the user is using to incrementally identify the at least one desired television content item; and selecting and presenting on the display device the subset of television content items that is associated with the string of prefixes received. 5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected and presented subset of television content item comprises two or more television content items, and wherein the selected and presented subset of television content items are ordered for presentation in accordance with a given relevance function.