Strange verification, preferred domain action

Preferred domain, causes verification error, but points to the same place

[oati]

Hi!

Google webmaster tools behaves strangely for one of my site. There are a www and a non-www form of the domain. Both points to the same place, but when I try to set preferred domain, it says, that I do not own both sites, please verify. I do it, but the verification than will be unavailable for the other (www- or not www) domain. But www and not www points to the same file.
Another strange thing is, that when I re-verify the page, a new item automatically appears in my dashboard "http:///". nothing more. While it is on dashboard, the verification does not process, so i have to delete it manually.

For all other sites of mine, the verification take place properly, and the referred domain can be set by just a click-

I'd appreciate any comment on this matter!

Thanks in advance
ati

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, oati.

There are a few other reports floating in about odd behavior right now in Google's webmaster tools. The only thing I can think to tell you is to make sure that your server is behaving properly, perhaps checking the http headers for both versions of your site (you can use the LiveHTTP Headers exrtension for Firefox). At that point, I'd say Google is having a problem that should clear up - write to them if it doesn't.

If you can do this, the most dependable approach to the with-www and no-www issue is to place a 301 redirect on your server, so that your not-preferred form of all urls is permanently redirected to your preferred form. See Why "www" & "no-www" Are Different - the canonical root issue [webmasterworld.com] for a thorough discussion.