Can these same techniques be used to blacklist competition or push competition out of sight?

Absolutely, this has been going on for years. Digital corporate war happens all the time in many shapes and forms. Techniques which boost links to the front pages of search engines also can reduce a competing site's visibility. Search engine corporations are not in the truth verification business rather in the search result business, and some techniques can dance the line between "white hat" and "black hat". For example, you can Google the following keywords: 

  • google bowling
  • search saboteurs
  • spamdexing
  • keyword stuffing
  • page hijacking
  • doorway pages
  • google bomb
  • cloaking
  • link farming
  • blog comment spam
  • black hat seo
  • click fraud

We stand on White Hat principles, keeping you in the clear and giving your reputation the greatest chance at successful management.