Inter-application communication and integration broker

A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for communication between a first application and a second application, which executable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

• receive, at an add-in component of the first application, an indication of a portion of a document accessed using the first application from a user of the first application;
• generate, by the add-in component of the first application, a first message including information associated with the portion of the document;
• transmit the first message to a data broker of a server from the add-in component of the first application via a communication network;
• receive a second message corresponding to the first message from the data broker of the server at a web client of the second application;
• and
• display information to the user by the web client of the second application based upon the second message.

A computer-implemented method for facilitating electronic communication, comprising:

• establishing a first communication connection over a communication network between an add-on component of a first application executing on a client computer and a data broker executing on a server;
• establishing a second communication connection over the communication network between the data broker executing on the server and a web client of a second application executing on the client computer;
• sending to the data broker, from one of (i) the add-on component via the first communication connection or (ii) the web client via the second communication connection, a message including information relating to a user input indicating a comment regarding a portion of a document accessed via the first application;
• receiving from the data broker, at the other one of (i) the web client via the second communication connection or (ii) the add-on component via the first communication connection, the message;
• and
• recording, by one or more processors, a link between the portion of the document and the comment;
• wherein the application add-in component of the first application and the web client application of the second application communicate only through the data broker.