Orchestr8 has just launched a new clipping tool that lets you widgetize your content. Clearspring and ClipMarks have also launched similar products, but we haven’t seen too many other companies enter the space recently. For Orchestr8, you begin by going to the new Clippings section of the site. From there you can browse the clippings of other users, or you can clip your own.

To create your own, type in the web address of a site you’d like to grab content from. The site will display in an iFrame, enabling you to select the portion of the page you’d like to share. Indicate the size of your widget, and give it a name, and the embed code is provided for you. Alternatively, you can send content directly to your personal start page for Netvibes, Pageflakes, and iGoogle, as well as sharing it across various social networks through Open Social’s platform.

The widgets are fairly basic and appear to be unbranded, but they are shareable, as there’s a “grab this widget” link that appears at the bottom of each widget. See here for a screencast of the new clipping tool from Orchestr8. The next most interesting part of this new clipping tool is the way in which it fits into Orchestr8’s larger network. We first covered Orchestr8 here, when the service launched as a mashup tool for browser content. One aspect of the service that I was particularly fond of was the Suggestions feature that recommended additional sites based on the website you were currently visiting.

I think the new clippings can be heavily integrated into a recommendation or search tool, in a similar manner to the way in which Twine has integrated clippings for its semantic search. Right now, clippings on Orchestr8 can be added to by grabbing more content from the site, and are associated only to the user that clipped the content. I’m very interested to see the larger plans behind Orchestr8’s incorporation of the clippings tool into its overall mashup service.

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