How have the relatively recent changes in how G perceives subdomains changed the best route to onsite geotargeting i.e. not building out new country specific sites on country specific and hosted domains and instead developing sub-domains or sub-folders and geo-targeting those via webmaster tools ?

In other words, given the recent change in G perception, are sub-domains now a better option than a sub-folder or is there not much in it ?

Also if client has a .co.uk and they want to geo-target say France, is the sub-domain/sub-folder route still an option or is the .co.uk still too UK specific, and these options would only work using a .com ?

In other words can sites on country specific domains (.co.uk , .fr, .de etc etc) use sub-folders or domains to geo-target other countries or do they have no option other than to develop new country specific (domains/hosting/language) websites ?

Any thoughts regarding current best practice in this regard much appreciated.  I have seen last Febs WBF which covers geotargeting in depth but the way google perceives subdomains has changed since then

Many Thanks

Dan