What is 301 redirect ? and how to do this?

Question

It is ironical that after asking the question:-
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2985377/how-do-url-shortening-services-make-money-closed
i am heading over to create another URL shortening service [ despite of the fact that it was closed without any proper answer ]. Till now i was thinking that i will just redirect the request to actual website and my job will be done. But then after some homework i got to know that there is something which is called 301 redirect.
http://searchengineland.com/analysis-which-url-shortening-service-should-you-use-17204

Now, should i consider using 301 redirect? If your answer is no, then it's ok, otherwise please let me know how to do that ;)

Answer 1

A quick google search results in http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php as the very first link. That appears to answer your question about "how".

If you're looking for a more technical answer, you'll need to provide the language that you're using, and libraries that you're working with. Or, if you're rolling your own HTTP library, you'll need to indicate that, too.

Oh, and as to whether you should consider it - you'll need to provide more information about your service. Are you going to be a duplicate of tinyurl? Exactly what do you want the user experience to be?