Search Engine Validation: Google, Yahoo, Windows Live: meta tag with content attribute fails XHTML1.0 strict. Thwarts multisite!

Hi SEO superheroes,

Oh most wonderful and esteemed authors of the very best of all Drupal modules.

Ok, I confess, I'm crawling, and this matter is beyond the scope of your module, however perhaps indeed of interest to all SEO checklist users.

Why, if validation against XHTML1.0strict is so important, do all of Google, Yahoo and Windows Live use validation code that fails XHTML1strict ?

<meta name="verify-v1" content="ALDSKALSDLKASDASKDSLKDASDASLK " />
<meta name="y_key" content=aSDLKASLDKASDKLASDKASD"/>
<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLEGOB" />

We are told to leave this code in (breaking XHTML) because they will use it again (when and how often) to validate again.

I would rely on the file upload method, however this fails under Drupal multisite for at least WindowsLive who use the amazingly creatively named LiveSearchSiteAuth.xml, so that every site would have to share the same named validation file. Well done Windows Live. Well I certainly wouldn't get the idea of looking for anybody's authorization info by looking into files with exactly the same name on every single server in the world, instead of a complex and hard-to-guess randomly generated key file name like Google and Yahoo use, which is unique to every person, instead of known to everybody and anybody. Google and Yahoo must know less than Window Live, because they are making it too complicated and not human friendly enough for us to guess easily ! Ahem.

Very grateful for tips from anybody on how I can have my validation cake and eat my site validation at the same time,

Webel

PS: Rhetorical: why is it that every time I touch anything from or involving the name Windows things seem to just not work out so easily ? And no, I don't expect an answer to that one.