If you see domain several names like this (www.scgrassroots.org, www.nychildrenschorus.org, www.palermoconference2002.org, www.peruusany.org, www.gunnm-seraphim.org, www.improvinbiz.org) what will you think? You might think that these are not-for-profit websites. But when these websites show up right on page one in a search for information on Vioxx recall, you start to wonder why the Children's Chorus in New York will be writing about Vioxx. The reality is that all these are fake websites run by two law firms: The Peterson Firm and Waters & Kraus. No matter which website you click on you end up on a website (www.cc2000.org) owned by these two law firms where they are trying to find clients for Vioxx related lawsuits.
Why would two respected law firms use such trickery to drive traffic to their websites? No one knows but it does not speak very highly of them. There is nothing wrong or illegal with using the Internet to find new clients particularly if you can do that through organic search results. But using fictitious names to get higher ranking in search results is definitely not a way to create trust.
It also goes to show that Google and Yahoo with hundreds of supposedly very smart engineers are no match for a bunch of crooks out there who can easily trick their search engines. Search engines are supposed to reward content rich websites and the order in which they appear in a search typically indicates their quality. It clearly is not happening right now with search engines which have a hard time keeping up with spammers and crooks. After it seems that $38 billion is at stake in the Vioxx recall case.