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Ah, Valentine's Day! It's the most romantic event ever concocted by the greeting card industry. While the cliché would have it that it's a time when droves of husbands and boyfriends descend on jewelry, candy, and flower shops, Google has a different take: Searches for "gifts for boyfriend" outpaced "gifts for girlfriend" by over 240 percent in the last 30 days. Similarly, searches for "gifts for husband" were made 39 percent more often than "gifts for wife."
What's afoot here? Are the ladies really doing more of the work of keeping love alive? Or is there simply an asymmetry in the sexes' shopping approaches? One would think that most of the fellas would take advantage of the Internet and research the ideal trinkets for the objects of their affections, but the evidence suggests otherwise.
That said, love is certainly in the air. Searches for "how to break up" and "divorce" have fallen by 15 percent and 41 percent, respectively, going from 2012 to 2013, says Google. Additionally, searches for "how to propose" jumped up by 66 percent in the last 30 days — California, New York, and Texas saw the highest increases in those searches — and that's been accompanied by a 13 percent increase in queries for "jewelry."
In other Valentine's Day news, "heart shaped cake" searches are up 4,900 percent in the last week. So if you can't find love this Thursday, at least you may get a slice of leftover cake.
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- App sorts your Facebook friends based on relationship status
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
Leave a Comment:
Maybe that's saying we have a better understanding of what to get our girlfriends and don't have to GOOGLE it...
That's pretty much what I was going to say.
Sure, I could see guy searching to do something unusual or out of the norm. But otherwise? Chocolate, flowers, and/or jewelry. Don't need Google to tell me that's what most guys get their significant other.
I don't think you'll find many guys who want flowers or jewelry for themselves on Valentines Day, and I'm sure most woman are not really wanting to do what their husbands/boyfriends are wanting them to do (naughty pictures, certain acts in the bedroom, lingerie, etc).
Brain, you trying to say we don't have to Bing for Bling?
My husband and I don't exchange gifts on Valentine's Day as we know of our love for each other and it is demonstrated in so many ways every day. What we do is he takes me out for a lovely, romantic dinner (we dont do that in the norm) complete with wine, etc and the next year I take him out (or cook a gourmet dinner ). It's lots of fun trying to remember where we went the year before and finding a new and /or unusual new restaurant is fun. We exchange really beautiful cards and he is a true romantic - his additional words in his cards to me make me smile, laugh and even cry a few happy tears. No one outside of ourselves and our children would consider him a romantic man, but he is. We are older so maybe thats why we don't feel the need for extravagance. Too many people (women) expect and need outward and expensive tokens of love - ladies, if your man cooks for you, gives you a personal spa treatment, and other not expensive but very meaningful gifts, enjoy those - those memories will outlive flowers that die and chocolates that make you gain weight. Gentlemen - show your special lady with words and actions the love you have for her. She will come to understand and appreciate you so much more. Happy Valentine's Day all - if you don't have a special someone this year, I pray you will find a soulmate before next year.