tedster - 4:04 am on Jul 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

One important aspect here is how are your urls currently indexed? Cleanup said "The site was around happily for years in the index (since 98) unders non-www."

Given Google's intensity around historical data, I can see how the algo's logic may have trouble with the "curveball" that redirected every url they had. Still, one year and no resolution seems way out there. And it's also amazing that no "with-www" urls were indexed. In a situation like that, I would probably choose to support the status quo with my redirect, rather than look to reindex the entire domain.

301 redirects aren't links -- and I think many webmasters are throwing them around much too casually in recent times. If you have a canonical problem, sure I can see it - especially because that's what Google says to do. But trying to prevent a problem that isn't currently showing up could get a bit dicey.

Google has struggled with redirect handling for many years -- both the 301 and 302 flavors. Yes, things are better now, but it still feels a bit cobbled together to me, and it can sometimes take a long time to see effects in the search results. Plus, I can't help but notice that 302 still plays into some successful spamming.

So I will set up the canonical fix 301 redirect when a new domain is launched, or if I see that canonical trouble exists for an established domain. But otherwise, I don't want to play in that playground. Too much like wearing a target during hunting season.