Patent ID: 8635236

Claim:
A method for obtaining an item desired by a user from a database of items, comprising: using a general-purpose computing device to perform the following: inputting an original sub-string to be matched to items in the database of items; obtaining a count of matches to the original sub-string of items in the database of items; comparing the count of sub-string matches to a list threshold to determine whether to use an augmented list view or a regular list view to present at least some of the items in the sub-string matches; determining whether the desired item is in the augmented list view or the regular list view; revising the original sub-string if the desired item is not in the augmented list view or the regular list view; determining that the desired item is not in the augmented list view or the regular list view; revising the original sub-string by: moving a visual indicator up or down over a desired character; moving the visual indicator to the right so as to pin the desired character and generate a revised sub-string; and alternating between moving the visual indicator up or down and then to the right in order to pin desired characters and obtain the desired item.