We review our recent studies of electromagnetic coupling and associated temporal dynamics of molecular excitations with plasmonic resonances supported by either localized or extended planar geometries. We focus on coherent interactions between plasmon resonances and molecular excitations, which are experimentally challenging due to the very short (similar to 10-100 fs) coherence times of plasmons. Recent experimental results and theoretical analysis for observing and controlling coherences between molecular excitations and plasmonic polarizations are shown. Advances will explore new directions in ultrafast coherent control of molecular excited states and energy dissipation processes, as well as ultrafast addressing and switching in plasmonics-based circuit architectures. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.