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Thanks, I am aware of this happening... and read this post when Barry did it.. I was just curious to see if there was a way around it.. (for Brand Search)..

I don't think this is correct. ? is an attempt at using a RegEx in Robots file which I don't think works. Further, if it was a properly formed regex, it would be ? is a special character for the user agent to mean all.  For the disallow line, I believe you have to use a specific directory or page. http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html I could be wrong, but the info on this site has been my understanding from the past too.

I agree - it was Google itself that suggested hyphenating keywords in url's. Example - I was just using the Moz keyword tool on a site named sellmybusinesscolorado.com. The search term it was tuned to was "sell business colorado". The tool, and so likely the bots, did not recognize those very words in that long URL. Had it been hyphenated - they would have been recognized. What brought me here was - is hyphenating, itself, non kosher in a sub domain? Thomas, coincidentally - the subdomain I was pondering is pest-control.straza.com. He is a business broker that sells a lot of pest control businesses. I also would do medical.straza.com. These subs will deal with their namesakes as if they were the only businesses they sell. Google recognizes the hyphen as the universal word separator. I stopped using underbars ten years ago - a nasty habit I learned from programmers. I think it is more the ABUSE of a good thing, as it always is, that should be avoided. ........... I didn't name that site, by the way ;-]