ComScore, in a statement, said it was releasing "an update of holiday season e-commerce spending covering the first 23 days (November 1 " 23) of the November " December 2007 holiday season. More than $9.3 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date, marking a 17-percent gain versus the corresponding days last year. Online retail spending was strong on both Thanksgiving Day (up 29 percent to $272 million) and 'Black Friday' (up 22 percent to $531 million), outpacing the season-to-date growth rate."

Estimates for the so-called "Cyber Monday," when we all supposedly get back to work and shop online over the company network, are for an additional $700 million in spending, according to comScore.

"While this would make it the heaviest online shopping day on record, we can expect to see even stronger days ahead as the 2007 shopping season progresses into December," comScore said.

How brisk is the economy during this year's shopping rush? Well, so brisk that the Amazon Kindle ebook reader, widely reviewed as an astonishingly expensive and ugly device, is "due to heavy customer demand," Amazon said.

So far, anecdotal evidece from some sources indicates spending in brick-and-mortar shops is doing OK, but the jury verdict probably won't be in for a few more weeks in that department.