Blogger/Blogspot vs WordPress.com vs self-hosted Wordpress

[Coopey]

Hello all,

I rarely venture in to this section, but have questions I hope the denizens here might be able to answer for me.

Is there any SEO benefit for using Blogger (*.blogspot.com) over WordPress (*.wordpress.com) or vice-versa?

Is there any evidence to back this if one is actually better?

What about self-hosted blogs i.e. I download WordPress from wordpress.org and install it on my own server with its own domain/subdomain. Is this more beneficial?

For four or five blogs relating the same site (different sections), I would assume that self-hosting a wordpress 3 (MU) blog with a seperate blog for each would more beneficial than four or five blogs on seperate services. Is this the case?
The site is question is PR3.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

(PS- the threads I could find while searching for previous questions all seemed to offer opinions on which platform is better- I am not interested in the benefits of the platforms at all, merely if there is any SEO benefit to one- I am well versed in using both the hosted platforms and installing WordPress myself).

 

[CyXic]

I'm pretty sure that Google owns BlogSpot.com, so there may be a benefit when it comes to Google's search results.

 

[thebutler]

Wordpress

Wordpress is good because of all the plug ins which can be used to help your SEO/SERP efforts (All-in-one-SEO plug-in great example).

 

[onlinedownloads]

If you a newbie then go with blogger.
Do remember that wordpress is search engine friendly and at the same time user friendly too.