Well, the weather outside may not yet have turned frightful, but the search certainly has.

With the launch of Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the United States less than a week away, consumers have gone online, scouring for ways to secure one of the guaranteed-to-be-scarce new video game consoles.

Nintendo has said it expects to supply 4 million Wii units worldwide by year end, and Sony expects to ship 2 million PS3’s in the same time period. But judging from early response to the consoles and recalling the hard-to-find XBox 360 that Microsoft launched last year, demand is expected to outstrip supply.

Toys “R” Us and GameStop, which let shoppers reserve a Wii console in advance of the official launches later this month, said they quickly ran out of the supply they had set aside for these early “preorders.”

So, the hunt is on. On Yahoo Shopping, searches for Nintendo’s Wii jumped 506 percent and PlayStation 3 searches jumped 463 percent during the week of Oct. 29-Nov 4, compared with a year earlier.
   

The PS3 will go on sale in the U.S. Nov 17, while the Wii will hit stores Nov 19.

For those ready to trade Halloween’s black and orange for Christmas’ red and green, searches are increasing for holiday decorations. During the first week in November, searches on Yahoo Shopping for Christmas trees, ornaments and cards jumped between 143 and 271 percent. Searches for Ugg boots rose 319 percent, electric blanket searches jumped 206 percent and coat searches rose 165 percent.

Here are the top 25 searches on Yahoo Shoping for the week of Oct 29 Nov 4:
1. iPod
2. shoes
3. playstation 3
4. ps3
5. books
6. tmx elmo
7. psp
8. wii
9. gps
10. iPod nano
11. nintendo wii
12. xbox 360
13. eBay
14. cars
15. cell phones
16. tires
17. furniture
18. nintendo ds
19. digital camera
20. pets
21. elmo tmx
22. nikon d80
23. coach
24. mp3
25. toys