Microsoft has launched its revised MSN Shopping portal, which is now a comparison-shopping engine boasting a six-fold increase in the number of items available and a hundred times more merchants from which to choose, reports Internet News. New features include RSS feeds from any product search results page, with users receiving updates whenever new items are offered or prices change.

The revised site, which was in beta for two weeks, has been built from the "ground up," according to Microsoft. The site's search capabilities have been refined, allowing search by brand, price, feature, and most popular and user ratings. Microsoft is also playing up the site's various gift-giving idea features.

The re-launch comes at a time of increased competition from traditional (Yahoo, Google, AOL, Shopzilla) and new players, including Become.com, which launched earlier this year, writes DM News.

According to a March study from Shopzilla, 59 percent of online shoppers begin their searches at an aggregator rather than a merchant's site.