Ampersand in Title Tag

How does Google treat an ampersand in a page title?

[Sally Stitts]

I searched for "ampersand in title" on this site's search function, and only found 1 occurrance.
The poster asked and re-asked the question, but it was never answered.

As an example (not real) - "Y & Z Market"
Let's say that a company has always used, and always been known as "Y & Z Market".
Is this at all problematic as a Title tag with Google?
What about "Y&Z Market?

In the title, would "Y and Z Market" be better?
Is the Google spider smart enough to equate these 3 options?
Or would they appear as different companies?

What about as a URL?
Would "www.y-and-z-market.com" be the best choice?
If not, what WOULD be the best choice?
I believe that "www.y&z-market" is a no-no.
What about "www.y-&-z-market.com"?
If everybody had always known them as "Y & Z Market",
it seems that one would wish to come as close to that as possible, in both URL and Title tag. N'est ce pas?

I would love to hear from anyone who may have wrestled with this before.

Thank you for any light that you can shed.

[tufty]

I went through the same problem and tryed lots of different combos. I am probably wrong but I think that
Y & Z Market is treated the same as Y and Z Market. I don't know how Y&Z i'd guess that it would be treated maybe as one word?

Tufty

[AthlonInside]

Y & Z would be great. it match searchec for Y or Z or Y Z.

if you use Y&Z, search wil only return when you search Y&Z not Y not Z and not YZ.

Y and Z is also great but and is ignore by google in search.

So I recommend Y & Z of Y and Z (be smart put both) but not Y&Z