A method and system via which a client application hosting a browser notifies a server of its existence, whereby the server provides enhanced operating functionality, such as state synchronization, to the client. Instead of requesting a server's normally-accessible website, a client application provides a URL to a hosted browser to access a hidden web page. The hidden web page returns awareness information (e.g., a "cookie") identifying the client as an enhanced client, and also automatically forwards the client to the server's normally-accessible website. Based on the awareness data, the server distinguishes enhanced clients from ordinary clients, and modifies its behavior accordingly. For example, the server and client application may communicate in the background, such as to synchronize the client application's data with server state information. To synchronize, the server data may be written into a client storage mechanism, or the server data may be passed in a page.