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Thanks for all of your help!

Thanks for the suggestion.  The results I got looked encouraging if I'm reading them right (never used that tool before) 

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:55:04 GMT Server: Apache Location: http://www.example.com/ Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

Thank you.

Thanks.  My sites/webmaster tools have been configured as such for awhile but I'm unsure if the "link juice" will remain as strong for old links that are going to http://example.com (it would be time-consuming to track down and request the addition of www. to old links so I'd like to avoid it if possible).

Thanks, Keri.  I'm using the following code in .htaccess to redirect to the www version.  Do you believe this will "keep the juice'?  I believe new links will link correctly but I was curious about old links that may be going to http://example.com

RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]*/)index.html?.\ HTTP/

RewriteRule ^(([^/]/))index.html?$ http://www.example.com/$1? [R=301,L]

Thanks, I started using sitemap.xml pages about a year ago on my sites and am also a believer in this process

That makes sense that it varies based on the size of the site.  I'm dealing with page rank 3 and 4 sites (moderate to small)...so I'm guessing I'm seeing up to two weeks.  Regarding the crawl indication at webmaster tools, if I see a crawl there can I assume the actual pages at google have been updated shortly thereafter?  I haven't equated the crawl and the viewable results as the same but maybe I should?

In terms of links to one's site helping your position on Google, if your site defaults to http://www.example.com (automatically adds "www." even if it isn't typed), does Google count links that appear as http://example.com (without the www.) with the same "weight"?  Thanks.

I'm curious as to how long Google updates take these days?  I'm just getting back into SEO after 9 years and I recall back in the day there was a monthly "dance" during which page results were updated.  Is it more frequent now?  Thanks

Since original posting I did some further research and decided to not use the software but thanks anyhow.