It depends on the authority of the domain, but .edu domain doesn't carry more weight than any other domain
No, normally .edu domains just have a higher PR which makes people think more weight is given (through the numerous backlinks and what not).
Not really matt cutts a prominent google employee says it used to but they fixed it as soon as they found that people were abusing it. Thank You
.edu are worth no more then any other domain extension. Period. That has been laid to rest already thanks to Matt Cutts. Now if we could just get everyone on board with it. I'm surprised there are still members here who believe this.
My sentiments exactly. But I can see how the importance and value of the edu domain can be misunderstood. The reason .edu domains seem more valuable is because the majority will have a PR7+. They are NOT more valuable in the sense that an .edu domain carries more value, but because the page that a link comes from will likely be of high PR and quality. Also, most of them link to other high PR domains (other edu's) and they have been around forever. The .edu domain IS more valuable, but only because the PR of the page your link is on CAN reach a PR9. It is a high quality site which will always receive tons of inbound links naturally, you know it will be around for a long time, and it won't be tossed away or sold like your average directory. But in the end, a PR9 edu and a PR9 .com will provide the exact same benefit.
I agree with most people that the domain extension on the linking page itself doesn't provide any boost, but an edu page is more likely to have edu IBLs of its own. If you have a choice of a link from page A which has 100 .com IBLs, and page B which has 100 .edu IBLs, there's no doubt at all IMO, that page B will carry more weight than page A (all other things being equal - outbounds etc). It's not about PageRank, it's about TrustRank.
I have some links from edu pages but the pr is still 3 I think com, edu, net etc, makes no difference.
Most .edu pages are controlled by students, not the schools and faculty (yes, the schools provides the pages but not the content). As a result these pages have zero trust and poor content. The myth that .edu pages have high trustrank is false. Only the minority of pages actually have that.
I like having more posts than you over here Even if i'm no where near your 15k at certain other places.
Do you really think he would admit .edu links are worth more if they where? It would create even more spammers.
Wow. I think I missed the train. I should have signed up with some university to sell edu links on my webspace there. I cannot believe people are still falling for this crap. Of course a link from stanford.edu (frontpage) is worth more than a link from somecrapMFAsite.com but common why would a link from: someuniversity.edu/~gonzo/myedulinks.html be trustworthy (eg. have trustrank). There are a zillion of those out there and quite frankly I don't think google trusts gonzo. If you still believe that, you are welcome to waste your money on those links. Damn I should have put up a paid posting forum on one of those places.
Oh please... Edu links give you way more trust than any other tld (save .mil, and .gov). Just because Matt Cutts said it doesn't mean it's true. He is just a puppet for Google's team (no offense). As jabb already pointed out, why would he go and tell SEOs that .edu links count for more? That would devalue .edu links even more and make them a prime target for spammers. By saying they don't count for more, he can trick people like you from seeking them out. Even if you think what Cutts said is true, that doesn't mean they aren't worth more in Yahoo, MSN, or Ask.