I'm about... a stargazer lily sorry. Is that enough?

1-800-Flowers has this new online shopping gadget that's genius. It's called The Apologizer, and it helps guys figure out what flowers to buy for their offended sweethearts. Would-be-apologists first choose their style (pre- or post-wrongdoing), then select their transgression. 1-800-Flowers then rates it on the offensiveness scale and recommends the perfect flower arrangement to get the erring swain out of the doghouse.

Speaking as a girl, I've got to question their assumptions about what's an offense, let alone a serious one. And if I actually were offended, how much ice it would cut to apologize and then do it anyway, no matter how nifty the floral arrangement.

Nonetheless, 1-800-Flowers is really getting in its customers' heads. People who send flowers are trying to send a particular message to their loved ones. And now that the Victorian secret language of flowers is around any more to help them out, they fall back on guesswork -- and professional help.

The Apologizer offers, at least in theory, the appeal of professional advice without the embarassment of confession to another human being -- plus the appeal of online quizzes.

And it's amazing just how popular quizzes are, even the most inane ones. People take them by the boatload and then post their results to Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, giving free exposure to a whole new audience who then often takes the quiz themselves, shares the results, and the cycle continues.

While 1-800-Flowers obviously has their own Web design team to create custom widgets like this one, you don't need one to do the same. There are all kinds of sites online that let anyone create a custom quiz for free, no HTML knowledge needed: ProProfs.com, Quizilla, Quizz.biz, Quibblo, MyStudiyo, QuizBox, and MyQuizCreator.com. The best quizzes are a little bit funny, but also tie in to your business in some way that makes sense such as what candle scent are you or what's your shopping style.

Meanwhile, keep on offering your customers the professional advice that a real human can give better than any computer program -- or any big, faceless company.