bizness thread time: Are certain domain extensions better for SearchEngine placements

[DangerDave]

Domain extensions have little - or no perceivable- effect on rankings.

True - A TLD is a TLD is a TLD...................

google penalizes any domain that has EVER been expired now

False - They are not "punished". They just dont get any benefit from pre-exisitng link popularity. Expired domains are still valid assets.

Apart from that you also run the risk of picking up a domain that Google has consigned to the black hole because some se spammer was using it.

True - but a little investigation can help you find out if it was... "banned" by Google.

Check it's previous existence - http://www.archive.org/,
Check existing Link Popularity - http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/ (Google aint the only SE out there.)

I was reading somewhere that google has recently taken away the relavency of hyphenated in achieving top search rankings.

Not true in my opinion - Be careful what you read about Google.!!

I think you have to take everything you read about what Google likes and dislikes with a grain of salt until you actually see Google confirm it on its webmaster pages.

Too True. Gday Steve

I know google has had problems in the past with .biz and .info domains spamming, so I am expecting them to compensate for this in the future

I dont believe that Google will punish an entire TLD for SE spamming.. believe me there are just as many .com/.net spammers out there.

JMO

DD