Using special characters (HTML equivalents) in anchor text?

[digitalv]

For style purposes I want to use a no-break space on a link, but I want to know if the Google algo sees it the same as a regular space.

Ie; if my anchor text is "my link" is it weighed the same as "my link" without the no-break space?

Same question for other &stuff ... would my & link be the same as "my & link"?

[tedster]

I've done this is several cases - not wanting business names or addresses to get split onto different lines, and so on. I've never seen anything peculiar in the indexing of such anchor text.

Now title elements and meta descriptions -- that's a different story. Stay away from special characters here or you may see some very odd looking SERPs. I routinely use the plus sign or the word "and" instead of the ampersand in those situations. Some businesses that include an ampersand in their business names have not liked it, but they liked the alternative even less.

[digitalv]

Thanks ted!