Using HTTP Moved Permanently vs. Not Found

[Hallvard B Furuseth]

We moved our web service where one could search for employees/students
some time ago, and I set up a mini web server in place of the old URL
which replies 404 Not Found, and with a link to the new service in the
body. We still get a lot of requests to it, referred from outdated web
pages.

Should we use 301 Moved Permanently instead, or should that only be used
to point at the 'equivalent' URL in the new service? The received "old"
URL is typically the URL of a particular person, but we can't translate
that to an URL in the new service. All we can point at is the front
page for searching for people.

Of course, an alternative would be to just take down the mini web server
at the old host.

URL: http://x500.uio.no:8888/...anything...

[Klaus Johannes Rusch]

Post by Hallvard B Furuseth
Should we use 301 Moved Permanently instead, or should that only be used
to point at the 'equivalent' URL in the new service? The received "old"
URL is typically the URL of a particular person, but we can't translate
that to an URL in the new service. All we can point at is the front
page for searching for people.

Either way linking sites will take some time to learn about the change
and update the link.

You may want to check your referrer logs and notify the owners of the
most frequently referring pages.

Regards