Importance of a dedicated IP Address to Google?

[apexis]

Does anyone have any current knowledge and or real life experience with the importance or lack of, having a dedicated IP address for your hosting account as far as Google Page Rank and other search engines are concerned? If you have 1 IP address and you add on domains, does that dilute page rank or trust? If it is shared and someone else's website that shares the IP address gets Google slapped, does that impact my website or blog?

I am looking at new hosting providers and dedicated IP address options are making me wonder if they are worth it. If a website or blog takes off, will I regret not having a dedicated IP address tied to a domain name (it is tied to the domain name right?)?

[a3web]

A dedicated IP address will worth well for your site, search engines like static and clean IPs and always trust more than shared IP hosted sites. Dedicated IP will generate more trust for your site in the view of search engines.

[seo-expert]

Obviously its better if you have a dedicated IP address for your website. Google don't like websites sharing same IP addresses and especially when both websites have same theme.

[Yuga]

A dedicated IP address gives you the ability to access your website via IP address. This means you could technically build out and view your website without even purchasing and setting up a domain name. This can be useful if you can't decide on a domain name registration, but want to start building a website.