A Web client/Web server computer system providing a methodology for embedding a context-sensitive Web portal in a computer application operating on the Web client is described. A special key tag type is defined to be monitored by the application, so that the server may control the application, where the special key tag type includes an embedded tag specifying hypertext navigation and includes auxiliary information. The server publishes to the application a Web page having at least one of the special key tags, so that the Web page is displayed at the application. In response to a user request for invoking a particular hypertext link of the published Web page, the application traps the request before the request is processed by the embedded browser. The application may determine whether the invoked hypertext link comprises a special key tag. If the hypertext link does not comprise a special key tag, the application simply passes the hypertext link to the embedded browser for processing. Otherwise, if the hypertext link does comprise a special key tag, the application processes the special key tag in accordance with the auxiliary information, and thereafter passes the embedded tag of the special key tag to the embedded browser for processing. In this manner, the present invention affords a means by which a Web server may and control a parent process (application) directly, thereby allowing an application developer to invoke functionality of the host application, particularly when such functionality would be difficult to emulate through Web pages.