A method for recognizing data, including strings and media objects, and annotating, or labeling, the data with a type label. After the data is annotated with a type label, application program modules may use the type label to provide users with a choice of actions. If the user's computer does not have any actions associated with a type label, the user may be provided with the option to surf to a download Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and download action plug-ins for that type label. One or more recognizer plug-ins perform the recognition of particular strings or media objects in an electronic document. The recognizer plug-ins may be packaged with an application program module or they may be written by third parties to recognize particular data that is of interest. One or more action plug-ins provide possible actions to be presented to the user based upon the type label associated with the data in an electronic document.