On NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1 This guy is running an online business - selling eye glasses - and his marketing strategy to rank in 1st page for major keywords is negative review... How does it get negative review ? Simple : the sale goes wrong = client cancel card transaction = shop owner send nasty emails = shop owner call clients in middle of the night = shop owner send death threat with picture of client's house !!! e.g. "Listen, b*tch, I know your address. I’m one bridge over” or "Close the dispute with the credit card company if you know whats good for you,” he wrote. “Do the right thing and everyone goes away. I AM WATCHING YOU!" And he concludes by saying that thanks to all negative review on the web, his business is now profitable... "I’ve exploited this opportunity because it works. No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?” Google replied yesterday saying that negative review has been a long lasting issue but currently they can nothing about it; it's up to the client to be clever and do some more advanced search.