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By Will Sturgeon, 12 February 2004 17:45

COMMENT It's that time again, a time when people are forced to shell out for gifts and trinkets for reasons of commercially-driven emotional blackmail. Don’t you just love Valentine's Day?

Everything you could wish to buy your loved one - from a dozen red roses to flights, a holiday or maybe something a little saucy for the boudoire - is now available on the internet.

Certainly that latter option would appear to be perennially popular with online shoppers just 'too damn British' to show their red faces in Ann Summers.

In past years the party-planning purveyor of panties has had problems keeping its website running smoothly online as it is inundated with demand.

Other sites such as Agent Provocateur and Figleaves have also moved into this highly lucrative market, realising that men will, first, want to buy online rather than face 'the walk of shame' into an underwear shop and, second, will really not object to having a good browse around the site while they're there.

Agent Provocateur seems to have recognised this latter fact and provides detailed movie clips showing 'potential buyers' what its wares look like when worn by a leggy model writhing around on a sofa.

Kevin Barnes, the online marketing manager for Ann Summers told silicon.com that traffic tends to increase massively on the site around Valentine's Day, clocking up in the region of two and a half million hits per day and seeing an extra 150,000 visitors on the site during February - often all squeezed into the week leading up to Valentine's Day.

However, while men may avoid the awkwardness of shopping in person, they are still ill-prepared for the task at hand.

Barnes said: "We often get guys calling about lingerie they've seen on the site - usually having problems deciding what size bra to get their wife or girlfriend. There's not a lot our team can do over the phone and I'm afraid that when asked 'What size do you think she is?' an answer of 'Oh, about a handful' just really doesn't help. We advise the lads out there do some label checking as preparation."

So what are the best selling items on AnnSummers.com this Valentine's? (Come on, you know you want to know.)

Confirming that romance may not be dead - but it's certainly changed since the days when a dozen red roses were the order of the day - Barnes said: "This year we launched a special edition Valentine's sex toy called Love and Kisses, which sold out in three weeks.

"There is also a special Valentine's lingerie collection and of course the favourites like chocolate body paint, furry handcuffs and the legendary Rampant Rabbit," he added, referring to the world's best-selling vibrator. Ain't love grand!

Also doing well at this time of year is a website whose very name conjures up images of the male approach to present buying - lastminute.com.

The one-time bucket shop has long since left its bargain holiday and last gasp flight ticket roots and moved on to be more of a lifestyle e-tail portal selling everything for the passion hungry shopper - from red roses and dinner and theatre packages to romantic city breaks or Caribbean holidays.

And finally, fear not - if you don't have a date for Valentine's then it may not be too late. A whole host of dating websites have sprung up in recent years to meet the demand of online singles. Match.com claims to be the UK's largest online dating agency. The company, which has sites worldwide, claims it put 200,000 people in touch with their ideal partner last year - which in turn is 200,000 more Valentine's gifts - all potentially bought online.

Jupiter Research has estimated the online dating market will be worth almost $800m across Europe and the US by 2007 - that's a lot of people, paying a lot of money online, to meet somebody they can later spend a lot more money on online.

But be warned, love can come at a price and we're not just talking about damage to your wallet here. We're talking about nasty viruses.

Computer viruses that is. And then there's the spam, the e-card deluge, the saucy emails, the IM flirting and the general network go slow as systems overrun by well-meaning Romeos and Juliets grind to a halt. It's enough to make even the most kind-hearted of IT managers disavow love.

Look no further than the 'I love you' virus outbreak in 2000 to see how willing people are to open an attachment from a source they can't vouch for. After all, anonymity has always played a large part in the tradition of gift giving at Valentine's.

People are so hopeful of receiving an email which reads 'I love you' that they'll open anything it would seem. Added to that all the spam which uses social engineering in the subject lines - hooking people with phrases such as 'You have an admirer'.

"Excellent" thinks 'lonely Bob' in accounts - only to be taken through to a site offering generic Viagra. That will probably not do his already-dented self-esteemed much good at all.