WebProNews

Not about to sit on the sidelines as other websites reap the influx of online shopping, MSN announced a "new and improved" MSN Shopping service with new comparison shopping tools, links to free shipping, and services for procrastinators. And if Danny Bonaduce rehab TV has left you cold, "America's favorite mother," Shirley Jones will be at your service with gift ideas.

Shoppers will be able to search for specific products or browse by category from a selection of tens of millions of products, designed to help people find the best price. The service also includes buyer feedback and ratings and reviews from Consumer Reports. MSN Shopping also offers Editors' Picks and Top 10 Gifts By Store.

The service employs RSS feeds for breaking shopping news, including MyMSN for a real time look at MSN Shopping's top 10 categories and top searched items.

"I'm excited that MSN is now in the comparison shopping game -- we've built new, powerful tools to make it quick, easy and fun for shoppers to find what they are looking for from one of the largest selections available online," said Jim Barr, general manager for MSN Shopping.

To provide what it calls one of the largest selections available online, MSN has partnered with PriceGrabber.com and Shopping.com. MSN Shopping has also teamed up with MSN Search to provide "instant answers." A search on digital cameras brings up three sponsored links at the top, five at the right, and reviews and advice on digital cameras in the non-sponsored search results.

Two of the more notable additions are the Free Shipping Center and Procrastination Central. The Free Shipping Center provides links to retailers who (surprise!) offer free shipping to customers. Procrastination Central starts December 13 with hundreds of last-minute gifts that can be shipped by Christmas.