URL Abbreviation and SEO

Which URL SEs Index? Abbreviated One or Actual One?

[webgaya]

Hi,

I have seen that URL abbreviation is an effective technique for speeding up web sites.

For an example in Yahoo's home page, the link to Yahoo Answers is as follows,

<a style="background-position:-400px -120px" href="r/4d">Answers</a>

But after clicking, it points to [answers.yahoo.com...]

My question is which URL is indexed by SEs? Obviously for Yahoo,
it's [answers.yahoo.com...]

But if I wrote an Apache rewrite tool and map "t/u1" to
"http://www.example.com/tips/this-is-a-too-long-url",
Which one would be indexed by SEs?

I am keen to use this technique but bit doubtful on which one
would be indexed by SEs? I want the long one to be indexed
by SEs.

[jdMorgan]

Which URL gets indexed depends on whether the code you use generates an internal rewrite or an external redirect. But using the external redirect (as Yahoo apparently does) wastes user's time, complicates indexing, and may cost you slightly in ranking. Yahoo can afford that, but you probably cannot.

Keep your life simple: Link to the URL you want indexed. Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you *should*... Introducing complications and increasing the likelihood of errors on your site is not a good plan.

Jim