new domain, sub-domain, or both?

[pdstein]

My company is going to be launching a new set of products soon. A seperate website is being developed to promote these products. I'm trying to figure out whether it's best to set the new website with it's own domain name like NewWidgets.com or a sub-domain like NewWidgets.MyCompany.com or both.

Does anyone know or can anyone point me to any research on how this might affect the ranking of this new site in search engines?

[EJRS.COM]

Having a subdomain is good if your main site is memorable (if people know your site). The subdomains help to tie all the external products/projects to your site.

However the subdomain ends up being awfully long, and the user may have a harder time remembering the subdomain and domain.

I have my site as http://ejrs.com/spybot, but when they want to get the product, they are taken to http://ejrs.biz/spybot

[Mel]

Subdomains are considered to be a seperate site, so there is no discernable difference there, but you may be able to work keywords into subdomains easier than trying to buy keyword domains. In any case the ranking advantage is very small to almost non existant IMO.

If your existing site is well branded, then a subdomain might make sense for users but if you want to establish branding for your new product then a new domain might be the best choice.