After eight months in private testing, Clipboard is opening up its Web clipping service for public use with a number of new features that could position it as a Pinterest alternative. Clipboard, led by veteran technologist Gary Flake, allows users to for clip, save and share sections of Web pages — preserving text, images and links. For example, a user could use Clipboard to take  preserve the interactive elements of a stock chart.

Clips are private by default, but users can share clips with others if those so choose. In the new release, users can create “boards” of their various clips with unique descriptions and titles that can be shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Clipboard's Gary Flake in the KIRO studios. (Erynn Rose photo)

“We think boards are a beautiful way of expressing yourself but are also extremely useful because they can have both public and private views,” the company said.

How is that different from Pinterest? Flake addressed that question in an appearance on the GeekWire podcast in March, citing the privacy settings as one key difference.

“I don’t really think of Pinterest, or another example that is often cited, Evernote, as really being our competition,” he said. “We are all kind of trying to tackle a similar problem, but in a different way. And it is a fundamental problem: How do you save stuff? It is a big space. If I wanted to carve out and identify one thing as my competition, it is that six-plus step workflow that I started out with. The idea that you are going to highlight, hit Control C, copy and paste into a Word document or email client and then save or send to yourself — because that’s the thing that I think actually to this day still has 90+ percent market penetration. That’s the one that everyone will admit that they use. And, so, we are all approaching this from a slightly different direction.”

He added that Pinterest is “visually appealing” and more “entertainment focused,” but Clipboard is much more “utilitarian.” He cited the example of recipes, noting that Pinterest may have gorgeous photos of food, but Clipboard would have the actual recipes with links in place.

Clipboard has raised cash from a superstar cast of characters in Seattle and Silicon Valley. They include Silicon Valley super angel Ron Conway; Andreesen Horowitz; Index Ventures; Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund; Draper Fisher Jurvetson; First Round Capital; Amazon.com board member Blake Krikorian; former Overture CEO Ted Meisel; Acequia Capital; Vast Ventures; Betaworks; CODE Advisers; and Seattle’s Founder’s Co-op

Listen to Clipboard CEO Gary Flake on the GeekWire podcastGeekWire Radio: Kindle’s impact, the new iPad, and how Clipboard is capturing the web

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