Don't bookmark it--Furl it!

I consider myself a fairly organized person. And I usually am, except for those times when I'm not, and I'm definitely not organized when it comes to keeping track of things I find on the web. Sure, I have URLs bookmarked in my browser, but I also have them scribbled on sticky notes, listed in "sites" files and stored in Palm Pilot memos. I email site links to my web mail accounts so I can get to them from anywhere. If I need a bookmark that's stored on my browser at work, but not on my home PC, or vice-versa, I'm out of luck. Oh, and did I mention all the URLs I have highlighted in various magazine articles, e-newsletters and e-mails that I've printed out?

It's a mess, completely disorganized and essentially useless. I have to look in so many places to find anything that by the time I've found it, I've forgotten why I wanted it. As a writer, when I need information, I need it now or the entire writing process grinds to a halt. This is not a good thing. But I think I found the answer: Today I stumbled across Furl.

"Furl is a free service that saves a personal copy of any page you find on the Web, and lets you find it again instantly by searching your archive of pages. It's your Personal Web... Each member gets a 5-gigabyte personal archive, large enough to store tens of thousands of pages... When you want to find something again, enter any word or phrase you remember from it... Even if a page has disappeared from the Web and other search engines, you'll still have a personal copy."

Yes, I know about del.icio.us, and spurl, and I'm sure there are others, but Furl caught my attention while I was surfing LookSmart's www.findarticles.com. I signed up and immediately became a Furl Freak. Now, I save everything I think I may ever need using the Furl It! button I installed on my browser toolbar.

Maybe I'll finally get organized...