Google’s 301 Canonical URL Paradox

There’s an interesting post over at Search Engine Roundtable about a WebmasterWorld thread in which one member documents his canonical 301 issues. It seems that upon implementing a sitewide redirect from the non-www form of his website to the www form, he experienced a drop in rankings sitewide. When he reversed the 301 - bam! - back in. Odd. That’s certainly not how Google advertises it. But with all the canonical issues they’ve had, I’m not surprised. Yet Yahoo! and MSN seem to have no problem with it. Go figure.