Dedicated IP, is it important?

[Buldog]

How important is a dedicated IP to a Google? I have a few domains that are hosted on the shared IP. Does dedicated IP add credibility for higher PageRank on Google?

Also another question. I have hosting on GoDaddy that is associated with one domain. Two additional domain although have their own HTTP addresses they are physically located in the root of that first one. To explain:

first domain (primary) is at the root:
domain1.com/

other two domains (aliases) are in folders inside that root:
domain1.com/domain2.com/
domain1.com/domain3.com/

To summarize:
1. How important is dedicated IP for Google PageRank?
2. Does it matter for Google PageRank that my alias domains are physically located (on the server) inside the primary domain?

[bytemaster]

In my opinion I don't think it really matters if it is a dedicated IP or not, I thought that google doesn't pick up the IP address just the domain name it resolves to?

The only time a dedicated IP is important is if you need an SSL connection.

[Buldog]

Well, I think it is. For example, how else would the Google know if links to your pages were from some link farms, which I think Google penalizes your PageRank for. Link farms is a group of web sites with somewhat similar IPs (at least some of the IP triplets).

But I want your opinions anyway.

[Ryan]

Hosting your website on a dedicated IP won't get you a higher Google PageRank. Google PageRank is calculated on the basis of quality and quantity of incoming links to your website.

[Buldog]

Quote from Wikipedia:
"It is known that other factors, e.g. relevance of search words on the page and actual visits to the page reported by the Google toolbar also influence the PageRank. In order to prevent manipulation, spoofing and Spamdexing, Google provides no specific details about how other factors influence PageRank."

I was talking about the gray zone of influence on PageRank where experience can tell whether some thing influences Page Ranking, and about which Google doesn't talk about. I have heard from some Search Engine Optimization people that inbound links from dedicated IPs are counted as more trustworthy than those from shared IPs because link farms (which Google definitely penalizes your page PR for) are usually groups of shared IP addresses.