Leosghost - 11:21 am on Mar 18, 2011 (gmt 0)

A 404 means it cant be "found "( but might be "found" again later ..as in you might want to put it back ..or something ) ..search engines will carry on looking for it though especially if people have linked to it ..

A 410 means "permanently" gone ..but you want to be real sure that you mean it ( ie you have no intention of putting it back someday )..a search engine will then stop looking for it ..even if peope have linked to it ..read the apache forum here to understand the differences and the whys.