A core-shell Pt in ceria type of catalyst prepared by a microemulsion technique shows high activity for both water gas shift and reverse water gas shift reactions but it does not catalyze methanation from carbon oxides and hydrogen feeds at all, whereas Pt-ceria catalysts prepared by traditional methods are effective for all these reactions under comparable reaction conditions. This clearly reveals the fact that the nature of active sites for shift reactions is different from those of methanation reactions, where a special metal-support interface in catalysts created by microemulsion offers the differentiation.