What are the advantages and disadvantages of pooled mining? Is it better to mine solo? Is pooled mining what is recommended now? I've heard you get about the same back either way, but I am confused and would like some help.
Disadvantages of pooled mining:


Smaller expected earnings - pools usually charge a fee and sometimes use a reward system (like Pay Per Share) that can give you a lower payout.
Having to rely on third party system to earn your money - websites go down, and when they do, your miners can be idling.
Trust - you have to trust the pool owner not to swindle money from you, either by creating fake miners in the pool that do no work but still receive rewards or otherwise. Similarly, the pool owner can have an agenda of their own that they wish to further (for example, Eligius pool owner used their miners to attack an alt-chain, as well as putting prayers in the coinbase transactions).
Giving power to the pool owner - some important decisions regarding Bitcoin future are made by people voting with their blocks. Some time ago the Bitcoin community had to chose between two BIPs that fulfilled the same role. The voting was done by the coinbase transactions containing a vote for either one of the BIPs. By giving their computing powers to the pools, the miners essentially gave their votes to pool owners to vote as they chose.


Advantages of pooled mining:


More predictable payouts - pools usually pay you on a more regular schedule - be it once you reach a certain threshold, daily or the like. Solo mining only pays you when you find a block, which can take a few days, years, or never.
Extra features - Pools usually let you quickly check the status of your miners from anywhere, notify you of payouts and the like, which would take you a lot of extra setup time on your own.
Less space - If you are solo mining, you need to keep your own copy of the blockchain. Pools handle all that by themselves.
It is easier - There is a low less setup required to do pooled mining, especially when we are talking about merged mining and so forth.