jd01 - 10:05 pm on Sep 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

If I was a gambler, I would wager that the appearant 301 issue revolves around this:

If you 'turn on' a new domain that is redirected to from an existing domain, it would be easy to game the system by buying a new domain, putting up content, and then 301ing it to another new domain.

I would guess there is some type of issue with transferring all information associated with the old domain to the new domain it is redirected to.

It seems like a simple problem -- I moved my site, figure it out, duh!

From a statistical history and tracking pov, it is much more difficult.

Just some thoughts:

If you transfer history information, what happens when the old domain comes back online, either bought by another party or the redirect is removed?

Do the stats stay with the original domain or are they transferred to the new domain?

If they stay with the original, then is the new domain that was redirected to removed?

If they are transferred to the new domain, is the old domain then deleted of history?

How do you track the two to see if the original domain is still redirecting, and what do you do if it is not any longer?

What if only part of the domain is redirected? Which site gets the history?

Answer: Much simpler and significantly less chance of user manipulation to start the historical data over at the time of any major changes in location, focus, theme, or ownership.

Justin