By Rosa Golijan 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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