It's also worth remembering that dashes are perceived differently in different languages. I'm working on a website for a french community and I was very vehement against using dashes in the domain name but no French people saw a problem with this because they are much more common in French than in English. Japanese URLs often have them too.
I would use a dashed domain if it makes things clearer (or less awkward) for the end user. Pen Island, Experts Exchange, and I'm sure many other companies would agree
There's no reason to not select your domain because of a hyphen. I had a domain with a hyphen in it, it had a developed site and I didn't see any difference in terms of SEO. As far as remembering it, it really depends on the niche. If its going to be marketed by word-of-mouth, probably not a good idea.
Some successful companies have hyphens in their domains (some of them several), for example:
http://text-link-ads.com
Anyone remember del.icio.us before the alternate delicious.com? twttr.com before it became twitter.com? It depends on your market, so I wouldn't really grip too hard on what the domain name contains.
(2011-04-04, 04:28 AM)Imad Jomaa Wrote: [ -> ]Some successful companies have hyphens in their domains (some of them several), for example: http://text-link-ads.com
Then again,
http://textlinkads.com forwards to the hyphenated version :p So they have a catch against people who don't use hyphens.
Dashes in domains don't bother me a great deal, but I do believe it makes the URL look a lot uglier and less appealing. Just my opinion.
(2011-04-04, 10:56 AM)Zash Wrote: [ -> ] (2011-04-04, 04:28 AM)Imad Jomaa Wrote: [ -> ]Some successful companies have hyphens in their domains (some of them several), for example: http://text-link-ads.com
Then again, http://textlinkads.com forwards to the hyphenated version :p So they have a catch against people who don't use hyphens.
Although they did start out with text-link-ads first. So my point still stands. =)
I don't have anything against them, useful if your domain has multiple words.
imo its annoying. I want to go to myhomepage.com. But maybe its my-homepage or myhome-page.com it gets annoying.
They don't bother me, although if you do have a domain which you're unsure about hyphenating, I suggest you buy both and set it up as a 'Parked Domain' (assuming you're using a control panel for your hosting such as cPanel). This also means that your 'alternative name' is protected from domain squatters/competitors etc if your site becomes popular, so maybe that's something you should consider?
As a side note, I've always found it difficult telling people to go to a domain with a dash in it (verbally); usually I say 'hyphen', then in some cases, there's a moment of confusion!