Hey... Ive been lookin at top ranked websites on google lately with a small title caption and vertical bars separating subject keyword phrases....Is this the new thing or what???
People do it because they think it looks neater http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=484176 which is clearly in the eye of the beholder, because personally I think it looks 'fussy'
I doubt that any search engine does anything more than ignore the bars (they're called pipes, I think). It just wastes valuable META description space, at least IMO.