Google's preference for old domains

[pauldmitri]

I recently acquired a domain that was originally purchased in 1998 and am in the process of developing it into an ecommerce site.

The domain was never allowed to expire, although for a few years, the owner simply used a re-direct script to send type-in traffic to an affiliate program, a practice that I don't think Google likes.

Now that I am developing the domain, do I still get "credit" for it being an well aged domain, even though the previous owner didn't maintain it in a Google-friendly way?

[mack]

I'm not convinced there is an advantage to a domain being mature. The main reason a lot of older domains do so well is because they have, had time to mature and develop natural linkage. I believe if you have 2 domains, one just out of the sandbox, and an older domain both with identical links then the advantage would be difficult to determine.
My advice would be to treat this site as a brand new site, get good content and links and let it settle into Google.

Mack.