Pfui - 1:02 pm on Sep 30, 2010 (gmt 0)

Dangbot, the Sequel:

- Despite years-long site verification via meta tag on a "default webpage," Bing's Webmaster Tools now says, "Site ownership has not been verified."

- Despite still using the exact same verification code in the exact same tag (re)given by Bing Tools, .search.msn.com only requests "BingSiteAuth.xml", not the default page.

- Despite performing routine rDNS lookups and okaying bare IPs to confirm .search.msn.com and then limit same to certain MSN UAs (msnbot, now bingbot, etc.; none of their misc. junk), the Bingbot verification UA is -- wait for it --

msnbot-[yada-yada].search.msn.com
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0)

- Despite uploading the danged .xml file even though I have the danged meta tag and re-re-reparsing .htaccess for over an hour punching holes, I'll be danged if I still can't (RE)verify.

Moral of the story: Make sure you're (still) verified. Good luck.