Using underscores

[mistyrubio]

If you use underscores in your urls - does it read..
for example

http://www.mistyrubio.com/port_st_lu...al_estate.html

will the search engine catch the Port St Lucie real estate with every word or portstlucierealestate as one word. Does the underscore seperate the words.. Do you understand what I am trying to ask.

[mistyrubio]

port_st_lucie_real_estate.html

above it had gotten broken up

[ResaleBroker]

...Does the underscore seperate the words.

Yes.

[Boston Condo Guy]

From an seo perspective, is it better to use an underscore, or a dash? I would assume that whichever of the previous two choices is better, that would be better than combing it into all one word?

1. boulder_condo.htm
2. boulder-condo.htm
3. bouldercondo.htm

Which is the best, and why?

[Bob Crain]

Dashes are easier to read, they are also eaiser to advertise.

[VRI]

Do an allinurl for a two word phrase and you'll see that the underscore is read as a character and the hyphen is read as a space.

ex. allinurl:real estate you'll see hypens not underscores

[webmaster]

underscores are not read as spaces whereas hyphens (Dashes) are. See VRI example above.

this_forum is read one word "thisforum"
Whereas
this-forum is read "this forum"

Using hyphens is always the best way to go.