"Google Bowling" be afraid, very afraid..

So there's a term floating around the Search Engine world called "GoogleBowling" and if you don't know what it means, and you're a site owner or webmaster with an e-commerce site, or even a large site selling advertising links, you probably should.

While it looks like it actually started in with the algorithm change in March of this year when Google decided to "punish" site wide link-buy campaigns, it's getting more buzz lately as it would seem the blackhat SEO firms are using it to tank their client's competition.

Google says:

Fiction: A competitor can ruin a site's ranking somehow or have another site removed from Google's index.
Fact: There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. Your rank and your inclusion are dependent on factors under your control as a webmaster, including content choices and site design.

However that's not the word on the street.

And there are even firms out there openly offering to carry out malicious campaigns against your competition.
I'd link them, but don't want to give them the advertisement.
I will offer you a quote off their site though;
Thank you Google for creating this revenue opportunity by giving people like us the power to Googlebowl.

Doesn't exactly warm the heart now, does it?