@tristancliffe
Yes indeed revving high without load damages the engine… but since engines are controlled by ECU, damage is minimized.
That’s because when you reach the rev limit that manufacturer has set, ECU cuts ignition and/or fuel injection periodically so to keep the energy which is produced by gases in safe limits for the crankshaft.

Fortunately all manufacturers are preservative when setting rev limits for the every day driven cars they make... That allows «boy racers» to rev the engine always-anytime on the rev limit and stil not braking the crancshaft, only cause more wear...

Quote from masternick :

i have lots of DVD's with jap drag racing and lots of the racers there use the rev limiter to tell them when to shift it's fun to bounce off the limiter

It’s fun but it slows you down because when you hit on the rev limiter the power oughtput is also limited.

Don’t confuse normal rev limiters with launch control systems.
Also when starting an fwd car, due to the excessive wheelspin, first gear is kept (while engine runs constantly in a rev limiter) till you reach the wanted speed so when second gear is selected, the revs will be within the power band.

There is not Japanese drag racing or any other country’s drag racing… it is just drag racing and is pointless to give examples from that because drag engines can stand only few passes on the dragstrip…

I'd say you'll do more damage to your engine hitting the rev limiter in gear because the momentum of the car can pull it over the limiter and everytime it cuts the ignition it shocks the whole thing a lot more as there's shunt in the gear and transmission system. I'm not sure where you get the idea that the stresses are greater on it when the engine has no load. If the engine is turning at 8000rpm, the acceleration forces on the pistons are exactly the same whether under load or not.

On the whole it's not good to hit the limiter at all. Some are pretty soft and controlled by the ECU preventing any more throttle opening, but when the engine literally bounces off the limiter you're putting some nasty loads through the crank and bearings. It's not to say the engine wouldn't rev any higher, but in any engine it's set to prevent any damage from loads the bearings/crank/gudeon pins aren't designed for. Most engines will be ultimately limited by the point at which their valves start to bounce. You'd probably start doing damage to the bearings etc too, but the ultimate limit is usually reached when the springs can't return the valves quick enough.