A system and method for web browsing using placemarks and contextual relationships in a data processing system. A navigation placemark is provided within a web browser. The web browser comprises a first web page and a second web page. A piece of information is located at a specific location within each of the first and second web pages. A first individual placemark is added to the navigation placemark, and a second individual placemark is added to the navigation placemark. Web page content is extracted from the first web page and can be used to control information shown within the second web page. An interaction between the first individual placemark and the second individual placemark is specified. A trigger criteria for the first individual placemark and the second individual placemark is also specified. A first profile and a second profile are created. The first profile is run as a background process that can be driven by the second profile, and a user may switch between the first and second profiles. The web browser may further comprise a first browser window comprising the first web page and a second browser window comprising the second web page, and/or the web browser may further comprise a browser window comprising a first tab and a second tab, where the first tab comprises the first web page and the second tab comprises the second web page.