Does Google penalise the use of secondary domains?

e.g. a permanent redirect: widget.com to bigwidgets.com

[JackR]

My domain is well established and has received lots of Google love from day one. The problem is that it's not memorable as the format is bestredsmallwidgets .com.

I now have a four-letter TLD comprised of the first letter from best, red, small and widgets - which in this example would be brsw.

It's far shorter, it's easier to publish and MUCH easier for email, etc.

BUT, does Google in any way penalise the use of secondary domains in this fashion, even if the redirect is permanent?

Also, what happens if webmasters decide to link to the four-letter brsw TLD instead of the existing domain?

[tedster]

One of my long time clients is in exactly this situation -- they've been using the shorter domain name for email purposes for over 6 years.

As long as you are using a permanent redirect, there should be no problem. But, I suggest you do not actively promote the shorter domain name. However, if an occasional webmaster does use it in their anchor text, I have not seen it cause a problem.