jeremy_goodrich - 12:51 am on Jan 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

My recommendation would be to take the larger site, develop the brand, and then "go local" with that one by partnering with people that are on the ground in that region. I've seen PR (not the Google kind) spread things farther, faster, and generally as well or better than the best laid search strategy.

That being said...I'd go with multiple IP's, domains, hosting, whois, and make sure that you vary the IP address you call to the site with, don't install search engine toolbars...um, etc, etc. Even if the plan is to 'unique' each domain, trust me, one large site has economies of scale that do far better in the SERPs that multiple smaller sites.

Hope that helps.