Patent ID: 8146110

Claim:
One or more computer-readable storage media embodying computer readable instructions which are executable to provide a service platform comprising: multiple different platform layers that are designed to integrate services, both web services and/or local services, across a variety of applications, the multiple different platform layers comprising: a global integration layer designed to enable applications that are not service aware to allow a user to access and use services from within the applications; common control integration layer that provides a control that can be hosted by different applications, the control being configured to be populated with services that applications natively support as well as services which are not natively supported by the application and being configured to display a user interface that includes a list of services, the list of services including at least one service that the applications natively support and at least one service which is not natively supported by the applications, the user interface configures to receive a selection of a service from the list of services and display a preview of the selected service by displaying content from a Universal Resource Locator (URL) associated with the selected service, the selected utilizing a declarative model that includes at least a display tag that provides a name of the selected service and a preview tag that provides the URL associated with the selected service; and a custom integration layer that provides a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that can be used by applications that are aware of the APIs to receive the list of services for presentation to a user.