Assume my business name was and is since before the web XYZ.
Registered locally and nationally for years.
Another party owns XYZ.com (not his business name)

All the other flavours (.net, .biz .us, etc) of "XYZ.com" are still available.

Where would a google search be likely to position two identical sites,
one "XYZ.com" and the other "XYZ.net"?

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Request for Question Clarification by missy-ga on 19 Nov 2003 12:41 PST

Hi there,

I'm assumiong that by "identical sites", you mean sites with the same
name, not the exact same content?

The URL really isn't going to factor into things.  Google looks at
page *content* in relation to the search terms when ranking pages.

Perhaps this will help explain:

://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

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Clarification of Question by littlejew2-ga on 21 Nov 2003 19:05 PST

respree-ga  understood the question dead on.  Site are equal in the
eyes of the Google algorithm in use.

Google assigns no importance to which TLD you use. Use .com or .net, they are equal.

Although Google assigns no importance on the top level domains, .net,
.com, etc., the search results would most likely position XYZ.com
ahead of XYZ.net because the .com TLD is more popular, and most
webmasters, if they didn't know the TLD, would guess .com when linking
to your site. That is unless the XYZ.net domain name had more
publicity/recognition. If the sites are identical, then which ever
site has more websites linking to it will turn up first in the
results.

It would be a pretty sad state of affairs if webmasters started
guessing which URLs to link to...

Not so sure I'd agree with either of the comments (although I don't
have an answer).

I believe littlejew2 asked the question if both sites are equal
(EXACTLY identical (equal number of links), with the exception of the
.com or .net).

If two sites are 'precisely' the same, one of the sites 'has' to rank
higher than the other (therefore, .com versus .net would 'not' be
equal)...the question is 'which one?'

Am I correct in my interpretation of your question?

Wow, now that really is an interesting question. 

The order of Google search results must be determined by a
mathematical value. What does Google do when two pages have the same
value? This must happen all the time!

Do they toss a digital dice?

> What does Google do when two pages have the same value?

Just a wild-ankled guess: alphabetical order? This would put .com
ahead of .net, of course. But it would also put .ca ahead of .com, and
so forth.

>Just a wild-ankled guess: alphabetical order? This would put .com
ahead of .net, of course. But it would also put .ca ahead of .com, and
so forth.

A logical conclusion.  Too bad that there are no two sites (that I'm
aware of) that are 'exactly' identical, otherwise we could test your
theory...

If everything, and I mean everything was identical between sites other
than the TLD, then they would most likely be ranked one above the
other.  I have no clue as to which TLD would be first, but I would
guess that .com would be, simply because it is first alphabetically. 
Another reason MAY be that popularity of .com would win out as people
are in the habit of ending a URL with .com.

That being said, if your company, named XYZ, chose to use a TLD other
than .com, which is presumably being used by a competitor, then you
run the risk of confusion.  The other company using XYZ.com MAY be
benefitting from the confusion factor, if you have been in business
longer and are a well known name.  Your best bet would be to use a
different URL in the .com domain that would not be as easily confused.

I assume that you are asking this question because you suspect people
will use the search term "XYZ" to find your product/service.  This
really is rather meaningless.  If both your company and XYZ.com have a
similar service/product called "XYZ", you would be better at focusing
your site's content on XYZ's than to find a similar domain name.

Here is the logic:  If a searcher is going to try XYZ.com, they aren't
using a search engine.  If they only know the product name as XYZ,
then they will search by that.  The URL in the results is of no
importance to them.  I believe Google uses the page's title as the
hyperlink.  So, eventhough you are selling XYZs, The title of the page
is of more importance than the URL to the visitor.

For instance, let's say the other company has titled (I'm speaking of
<title> tags here) their home page "XYZ.com".  That will apear in a
Google search result.  You, on the other hand, may name your home
page, "The Original XYZs with ABCs added".  Your title would probably
catch the searcher's interest, as it is more descriptive and they will
intuitively go for the match that most suits their interest.  They
click on the hyuperlink and give little notice to the URL.

Your URL should be short, easy to remember, descriptive (using a
keyword or two, if possible)and preferably in the .com domain.  It
does not have to be your company's name.  This is so it will fit on a
bussiness card or be easy to remember, if they hear it.  If they
already know the domain name, they won't be searching for it.