Whenever a service can reduce the time it takes us to create and organize, it becomes a valuable tool. And, Plum, if it's not received well by the time it launches, will definitely grow into a useful and popular service soon enough.

Let me give you an example of how, from a personal standpoint, the service works. Very similar to Jeteye, but with a far easier interface, Plum allows me to create a category, say "Hawaii." I can browse the Web and "plum" it by hitting a plum button that you can easily access, if you make it one of your bookmarks. The "plummed" page then goes directly to the Plum page you've created.

Additionally, Plum allows me to capture an entire page, or snippets of it, with a simple click. The importance of collecting an entire page versus, say, a link alone is that you're essentially taking a snapshot of that page. Aside from its ramifications for traffic metrics, that means you'd never end up clicking on the page in the future, only to find this message: "This page is not available anymore," or "Page cannot be displayed" or something similarly annoying.

So "plumming" a page is akin to cutting out a newspaper story and always having it at hand for future reference. The difference is that embedded advertisements would change, since the Web pages are still live. Additionally, if they are pages behind a subscription wall, only a subscriber can view them.