First, fifteen years of .com saturation make those the gold standard of "what's that web site? someone may remember the name but not the extension. So right from the start, if you're going to go with something other than .com, it's wise to do so if you can also secure the .com version and just set a 301 redirect on the .com version, if your purpose is to potentially influence the Google algorithm by using that particular TLD as a keyword reference.

I can't tell you how many people type in a domain name sans the .com in their browser's URL field or at Google but I do know that happens. If it's in the URL field, browsers will automatically try the .com extension to figure where someone thinks they're going.

Next, there's the issue of trust. If your page titles and description (IF that is used by Google) are spot-on award winning stuff, and if the appeal of that is also spot-on to the market you're reaching, I'm sure you'll get clicks. But how many, I can't say, except there's an inherent trust in .com and an inherent distrust of the more esoteric TLDs in general.

So the question then becomes – how important is it to try and squeeze the extra algorithm value out of that TLD?
.-= Alan Bleiweiss´s last blog ..Rent My Torso @ SMX West 2010 =-.