Duplicate content issue

How to work with 301 redirect in Yahoo

[CainIV]

Hi guys. A short while ago I needed to switch all of the url's in one of my website to shorter urls along this format from:

/index.php/category/date/something/

to /category/something/

So far both MSN and Google have handled the 301 redirects fine, however it appears Yahoo still has not. What I see is that Yahoo has gone through and updated some of the urls to the new url, while in most cases the old urls are still there with new cache dates. What is worse is that there are also new urls with new cache dates that represent the new pages, thus creating duplicate content.

The old pages had considerable inbound link popularity, however I am wondering at this time if it makes sense to simply cut the cord and 404 the old pages to reduce this duplicate content. The 301 change was done about 3 months ago.

Thanks for any help.

[toprock]

I wouldn't go to the 404 just yet. There is an update going on with YAHOO and it is confusing a ton of us who have been in this business for quite a number of years. Just wait a couple more weeks before making that type of call.

I have personally built many web sites with duplicate content under different template formats. No bannings yet. Why? Because the same article can be published on 10,000 web sites and be duplicate content.

Now, this being said, I have never duplicated content on the same URL and would not attempt that trick. However, you are following protocal by using the 301.