301/302 For Affiliate- free Googe PageRank Boost

redirection for affiliate programs and PageRank

[franckey79]

I've been analyzing one online bookstore (on Polish market). They have a very good Affiliate Program -- links from partners are counted by Google. Because it is bookstore with a lot of books and a lot partners-site, PageRank is boosted. And actually they receive that for free.

I checked HTTP headers and I saw strange mix of 301/302 redirects. However it works perfectly, because link commend on Google shows links from affilitates.

So, here is example:

1. Link form partner site looks like this:
example.com/view/PARTNER_ID/particular_book.htm

2. Then there is 301 redirection to
example.com/cgi-bin/linkfrompartne...particular_book

This script adds cookie, and I think write some informations in databases.

3. And last, there is one more redirection, this time it is 302 redirection to final 'static' website:

example.com/books/particular_book.htm
----
On Google:
link:example.com/books/particular_book.htm

shows some pages which contain this link:
example.com/view/PARTNER_ID/particular_book.htm

So, it works, but for me it is strange, that 302 redirection is used, Would it be better, to use twice 301?

Thank you in advance for your answers.
Franckey

[edited by: ciml at 11:00 am (utc) on May 18, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]