I don't have a .us but I don't think it .us will rank better than .com as it depends on the links and other stuff. Domain extension hardly matters ( IMO ).
As far as Google or Yahoo rankings are considered I really didn't think that the extension matters. The content, links, backlinks and domain name are what help or hurt your rankings.. Though I can see Google.com giving a better ranking to a .com than a .co.nz, if both sited were equal in everyway but not coppies of one another. But Google.co.nz would probably give the better ranking to the co.nz.. You know what I'm saying.
Well i dont agree with both of you . The site which is at top of the google search page (everything matters including whois information) the uk search engine ranks .uk domain higher than any other , i dont know abt others
They dont matter but personally .com is always best for user reasons! Except for the .gov .edu obviously Update: Post 1,000 woo!
I agree with n.james .com is always the most valuable in my opinion. I never knew .us could even be closely compared to .com, that makes me happy since i just bought a .us domain the other day.