• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 8, 2013

One in ten relationships end on Valentine's Day, and 85% believe trustworthiness is the most important trait in a mate, according to a survey from Bing and Impulse Research. The search engine shares the numbers in the hope that you will give up searching on Google during the most romantic day of the year. Symbolism. Isn't that what it's all about?

I get why Bing suggests people wait until V-day, but the majority of research and buying occurs one to two weeks prior to the holiday. Of the billions who will buy gifts for loved ones for Valentine's Day, 26.3% plan to find them online this year -- up from 19.3% last year and the most in the survey's 10-year history, according to a survey from the NRF and BIGinsight. The findings suggest 40.7% of smartphone owners will use their handhelds to shop for gifts, and 46.9% of tablet owners will use their devices to purchase items and research gift ideas. 

Overall, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects consumers to spend $18.6 billion for Valentine's Day in 2013.

Valentine's Day is big business for florists, but few offer information and ordering online. Nearly three-quarters of florist Web sites are not optimized to offer customers an optimal mobile experience, and 82% of the Web sites don't load in less than 3 seconds, according to vSplash SMB DigitalScape data.

I expect to see marketers and brands express their love in a variety of ways, other than Facebook posts and twitter tweets. For example, Spotify, the streaming music service, launched a new site called Playlist Poetry, which allows users to bcreate poetry from song titles and share the results with your Valentine.

In another example, Radionomy, a music service that enables people to create their own online radio station, launched Facebook content that allows listeners to share their devotion to another on Valentine's Day across 7,000 of the networks' radio stations.