Ok I feel that Google gives a crapload of weight to a site that can gain a nice text link on a .edu site or a site that has .edu backlinks pointing to it. Since most .edu sites have been around since the beginning and are well respected. How much weight do you think Google gives to .edu links if you can get them pointing to your site?
I'd like to test that, if I can get some pointing to my site. I've tried with forums, but so far, nothing.
I got a .edu once and seen top 10 position of almost all my keywords, but it lasted for about 8 hours then i was back to the wastelands with everyone else
Google used to give weight to .edu domins. However .edu spam was way too much for google to re-consider the weight. Now google only gives weight to top tier EDU domains such as Hardvard, MIT etc
What makes you believe this? If I see someone posting say cheap viagra and its showing up in Google because they posted in the forum then that means to me they give that site a crap load of weight.
viagra spam days are over! however there are some specific top tier .edu domains which are still targetable as i said earlier
Matt Cutts already discussed this issue. He said Google does not favor edu links any more than any other link. However, he does point out that because edu pages are a part of the education system, they do have credibility.
.edu backlinks are not that valued as they used to be. Blackhat SEO's had started spamming such educational forums in greed of .edu backlink even some university students who had got account on such edu sites have started trading for links. So i think Google must not be giving much importance for those spammy edu links.....
IMO it is not whether a stie is .EDU its the "trust" that google gives to a site. As most EDU sites have been around for a wihle and tend not to get invovled in link buying, etc, etc, they will tend to have higher "trust". I am sure gogoles' meausre of "trust" will be a key factor in future google algo changes. All you need to do is find sites with the trust facotr and then get links form them
Maybe Google is not giving extra weight to links from .edu sites, but it sure seems they are still giving higher PR to edu pages. I recently came across a student page with three broken images, only a few sentences, no backlinks shown in Yahoo SE, but had a PR of 5.
I agree that their is really no importance over other extensions. And yes I have read about what Matt says. And I do have to agree to a certain extent. I do have an .edu blog and I get some small amount of traffic for not even advertising it or doing SE submissions etc. I have gotton some spam and also some decient questions as well. I really didnt have to do much effort for attention vs other regular blogs I have.
Its a rank which cant be seen like the PR . google gives High trust rank for sites having authority links.
It may have value in the past (yahoo times) cause .edu sites was moderated very good , but now in my imo there is no difference between top level domains.