A hi-tech service enabling forgetful romantics to proclaim their love to their partners via email or text on Valentine's Day has prompted hundreds of downloads.

Viral Valentine cards, featuring an animated love song which can be sent by computer or mobile phone, aims to save thousands of people from embarrassment and excuses on Wednesday.

More than 1,000 people have already downloaded the cards from sites set up on MySpace and YouTube by five friends from Brighton - musician Dominic Ferris, and computer experts Charlotte Lloyd, Tom Harrison, Cedric Rouse and Tom Large, from Rare Entertainment Productions.

Mr Ferris, 21, wrote the love song, I Need Your Lovin', for the Viral Valentine and said: "Every year, so many people get so much grief for not sending their loved one a Valentine.

"Some people just forget, or the card shop is closed, or they don't catch the post in time, or often they are simply too shy to send a card to someone they fancy. Others, as we all know, are just too lazy to bother to buy a card.

"As most young lovers live on the computer and communicate through email and text, we decided to bring Valentine's Day up to date and invent a service that is easy and free for all to use."

Mr Large, also 21, said the idea was already showing signs of widespread popularity.

"We put up a choice of eight Viral Valentines on MySpace, YouTube and FaceBook, each of them animated to Dominic's song, and so far we have had 1,079 downloads from people preparing to send them on Wednesday," he said.

"Our Viral Valentine is already among the top 10 Valentine's searches on YouTube. I think we've found an ideal way for the MySpace generation to say 'I love you' on the big day."

The service can be downloaded from www.YouTube.com/user/RareEnt, www.MySpace.com/dominicferrismusic or from www.FaceBook.com