Macro - 12:10 pm on Sep 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

I could very easily do this to all my competition

Apparently so. And all you need is a throwaway domain with higher PR than theirs. No html, php or hacking skills required. Simply cut and paste a meta tag from the examples and replace the URL in it.

I just went through all those same threads that you found and it seems the problem dates back to last year (or, at least, Jan this year).

Google, how come you are so silent on this?