Redmond, Washington - November 30, 2005 - eCommerce search engine, MSN Shopping, has experienced record pre-holiday spending and site traffic in November. MSN Shopping is owned by Microsoft Corp. which announced the news.

MSN Shopping gave these examples that it claims are early signs that this year's holiday season could be the most successful ever for MSN Shopping:

-- On the Monday after Thanksgiving, known as "Cyber Monday" in the retail industry and considered as the unofficial kickoff of the online holiday shopping season, MSN Shopping had a 52 percent increase in page views and 55 percent increase in page visits compared with Cyber Monday 2004.

-- Portable MP3 players, digital cameras and various clothing items are among the most searched for items on MSN Shopping this holiday season, participating merchants reported.

-- More than 7,000 merchants offer products through MSN Shopping, up from 210 merchants last year.

-- Selection on MSN is up to 28 million products from 5 million last year, a 460 percent increase.

-- More than 91 percent of merchants that ran ads on MSN Shopping during the 2004 holiday season will do so again this year.

MSN Shopping visitors also have a wider selection to choose from this year, with seven times the number of items and 35 times the number of retailers. There are also new, shopping-made-easy search and comparison tools, as well as newly added product ratings and reviews, consumers and retailers alike are realizing that the shopping experience on MSN is better than ever.

Jim Barr, General Manager for MSN Shopping commented on the news, ''We've completely rebuilt MSN Shopping and, in our first holiday season as a comparison-shopping site, we are thrilled with the results so far. We've received terrific support and feedback from advertisers, merchants and consumers that is fueling our commitment to making the MSN Shopping experience even better next year.''

To learn more or to try out the shopping search engine, please visit: http://shopping.msn.com .