You've probably seen the scientology or Critical IP counter-campaigns, led by people who tried (and succeeded) to alter Google search results ranking through heavy linking from many different sites. Just now, Sylvain Carle wants to come first for développement web (he already owns his name).

Since the fact that Google loves blogs is now being used as a tool, expect Google to tweak its rankings to lessen the impact of such tactics. Not an easy thing to do so, since these tactics rely on distributed linking, so it's hard to tell them from more legitimate, spontaneous or genuine linking (if there's such a thing).

03/04/02 update: synchronicity as I've rarely seen it: Google Time Bomb - Will Weblogs blow up the world's favorite search engine?.

10/05/02 update: we told you so: Google Degraded? Geeks Aghast.