Friendly URLS - or _ ?

I want to make some friendly urls using more than one word. Which is better?

first-word.html

or

first_word.html

In the first example could this not be interpreted as being minus the word 'word' as you would input into a search engine?

 

These days hyphen "-" is more prevalant than underscore "_"

Like ask-dir is using it.

 

Hyphen is better.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=267299

 

hyphens are classed as spaces, much better

 

Great, thanks, a very useful article!

 

underscore will work, but the i suggest firstword.html as this will work better

 

i agree with uttoransen, firstword.html is the best.. but if its a big word it would be better to include the - hyphen ,, rather than the underscore _

 

Considering it's a phrase but not a single word?

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dashes-vs-underscores/

 

I have tried both and underscore has worked much better for my sites.

 

I have heard that this one is better first-word.html

 

first-word.html is better because underscore will be ignored in SE. Thus SE will see first_word as one word, not 2 words.

 

I'd go for the hyphen. It is better in my opinion.

 

* first-word.html : google will think , this page is related first and word


* first_word.html : google will think , this page is related only first_word

 

HYPHEN gets my vote...just read an article on this....
if you query "los_angeles_doctor" in google, and then
"los-angeles-doctor", you will get strikingly different results, the latter, with the hyphens, being of MUCH better quality.....

 

I was reading the article..

whahaha

though i tested some queries and saw G can seperate words connected with underscore as well

 

I'll go with the hyphen than underscore. Both is considered as two words but hyphen is the better choice

 

I wouldn't be so sure about that
look:
http://www.google.com/search?q=darmowe+javascripts&hl=pl&lr=&rlz=1T4GGLJ_plUS212US212&start=10&sa=N

I do not use underscore any more but some of my old sites (i.e. above example) still score and apparently G can see it as a separate words.

 

Is there a problem with using +

I use + in some of my URLs.


Like this :

http://www.invision-gaming.co.uk/news/Game Servers/104-New+CSS+Update.html

invision-gaming.co.uk/news/Game%20Servers/104-New+CSS+Update.html

 

lol,interesting.
This is the first time that I see people use + in url's.
I'm not sure if it's good though.

 

I just used urlencode() thats why.

Id REALLY like to hear some feedback on this.