pleeker - 7:06 am on Nov 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

I recently interviewed Jon Glick, formerly of Yahoo's search team, about this. It was a "fact or fiction" section of the interview which went like this, with me making a statement and him answering if it's fact or fiction:

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5) Registering a domain for several years is a good SEO tactic.

Fact. There is a minor benefit to domains with longer registrations. It shows that the site is planning on being around a while, and makes it more costly for spammers to buy disposable domains. Just like when the IRS determines who to audit, each “flag” is worth a certain amount, and if you score too highly, boom - you’re audited. A single year registration is just one flag.
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I also asked him if private registration was a "bad SEO tactic" and he said it was.

(I assume I'm not allowed to give out a URL for those interested in reading the whole thing, so sorry for not doing so.)