Best multi-language site strategy?

[hockerty]

When reading about multi-language site structure, general knowledge says that there are 2 right ways of doing it right:

1. Assign one domain per region/ language:

www.domain.fr

www.domain.de

www.domain.co.uk

...

If a country has more than one language, such as Switzerland, you can create folders for those languages:

www.domain.ch/fr - in french

www.domain.ch/de - in german

2. Have a unique domain www.domain.com for the whole site and create folders for language region:

www.domina.com/fr

www.domain.com/uk

...

If a language is spoken in more than one country, you can create subfolders

www.domain.com/fr-ch - french in switzerland

www.domain.com/de-ch - german in switzerland

At first sight, it seems that option 1 is the right one. However, sites such as www.apple.com are using option 2. I am unable to decide... what would you recommend? Any objective criteria?

[JonathanLeplang]

Look at this WhiteBoard Friday : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday

My personal choice is to use one domain per language and I've good result also in country with more than one language like Belgium.