Flowers for Algorithms

In anticipation of the upcoming maternal celebration on Sunday, The New York Times is running an article this morning that highlights the link-war in which the nation's largest online floral retailers are engaging.  Research indicates that people primarily click on the first two-to-three search results posted on Google, therefore creating big incentive for companies (not just florists...) to game the system by buying links, some related to their business and some not, to increase the number of links back to their website and therefore increasing their ranking within the Google algorithm.

Considering that the Mother's Day holiday generates gift-giving at nearly $16 billion/year, it is no wonder that companies are vying for the biggest slice of that pie.  In other news, Marketplace on American Public Media suggests that the average American spends $140 on a Mother's Day gift.  In light of this research and the fact that I only sent my mother a copy of a favorite book of mine, the rest of this post must wait while I go shopping....maybe for flowers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Anne Tucker