NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - In an effort to cut down on the number of fruit cakes that are given as gifts this holiday season, online gift registry service Della .com has created a wish-list service to help folks get and give the perfect gift.

"People feel more comfortable creating a wish list and having it have a whole host of things that they would generally want and to have other people come view it than actually telling them, 'Please buy me this'," said Jenny Lefcourt, co-founder and vice president of Della .com.

"It's a little bit less direct and we kind of equate it to dropping a hint," Lefcourt said. "Because its slightly removed it feels softer." The San Francisco-based company, which was started as an online wedding registry, last week launched its Wish Centre, where people can pick and chose items from a number of Della .com's merchant partners and list those items for friends and family to see.

Users can also send out electronic card or e-mails to tell people what they want, and gift-givers can also send cards to ask what friends and family want for birthday's or holidays.

Lefcourt said that people are also using the service to list items that are not necessarily sold through the site.

"One women put down that she wanted a Bernese mountain dog," Lefcourt said. Della .com, which is privately owned, is one of more than a dozen gift-giving services that are permeating the Web lately, but Lefcourt said Della .com is focusing on setting itself apart by adding top brand retailers to its merchant partner list.

"We'll probably have about 50 merchants by mid-2000 and we're going to keep to very well-known trusted brands as we add them on," Lefcourt said. Current merchant partners are outdoor retailer REI , Gap Inc. , online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. and housewares retailer Williams - Sonoma Inc. The company, which changed its name from WeddingChannel.com in November, said it is named after one of the characters in O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi," a story about a couple who sacrifice their most prized possessions to buy the perfect gift for one another. Della sells her long hair to buy James a watch chain, and James sells his watch to buy jewelled combs for Della 's hair, representing each person's selflessness in gift giving.

"It makes a lot of sense that there's a place where you can find what someone wishes for across all of these categories," Lefcourt said. "No one is going to hunt and peck around the Internet ."