Patent ID: 8464248

Claim:
A method comprising: displaying, at a first computing device, a menu interface of an installed application being run on the first computing device, the menu interface including selectable tabs for accessing functions supported by the installed application; displaying, within the menu interface of the installed application, a particular selectable tab for accessing add-in components that provide supplemental functionality to the installed application; receiving a user selection of the particular selectable tab; accessing, by a discovery application on the first computing device, a list of available add-in components corresponding to the installed application, wherein: one or more of the available add-in components on the list are not installed on the first computing device, and the list is accessed by the discovery application from memory of the first computing device; presenting, by the discovery application, a set of selectable icons corresponding to the available add-in components on the list in a display area corresponding to particular selectable tab; receiving a user selection of a selectable icon corresponding to a particular add-in component that is not installed on the first computing device; obtaining, by the discovery application, the particular add-in component from a second computing device that is in communication with the first computing device via a network; installing, by the discovery application, the particular add-in component on the first computing device; and initiating, by the discovery application, execution of the particular add-in component to supplement the functions supported by the installed application, wherein the particular add-in component can be subsequently disabled or uninstalled in response to user input.