Teens need fashion help too

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• Meredith Corp. is launching the Meredith Women's network, a brand network comprised of core sites like Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, and Fitness, as well as sites in the Real Girls Media network.
• Searchles launched ad-supported widgets, targeted to bloggers and web publishers that hope to monetize their sites, increase page views and stickiness. Interested publishers must register on the Searchles website, at which point they'll receive a piece of embeddable code that invites a spider to crawl its content for optimal ad relevance.
• AOL Health, Organized Wisdom, tudiebetes.com and WrongDiagnosis.com joined the Healthline Media Network.
• In a press release, ad marketplace TRAFFIQ claims its display ads generated CPMs at a rate 17 times higher than average in Q4 2008.

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Co-founder Satish Dharmaraj of Zimbra is leaving Yahoo in March. Zimbra was purchased by Yahoo in September 2007 for approximately $350 million.
• Thomas PR has been tapped Agency of Record by Syracuse-based PPC.
• Ogilvy's John Seifert has been promoted. He will now head North American operations.

Biz Buzz:

• Despite despairing speculation about CEO Steve Jobs' health, Apple reported robust Q1 profits — beating Wall Street expectations with a profit jump of $1.61 billion from $1.58 billion last year.
• Ask.com purchased Sendori, a startup that launched "interesting advertising exchange technology," which lets advertisers buy direct nav traffic generated by top tier domain names.
• Yahoo deflates still further.
• Yahoo launched an email feedback loop, powered by Return Path.
• Text message marketer 4INFO just raised $20 million in an equity round led by Peacock Equity — co-owned by NBC Universal and GE Capital. Other investors contributing to its fourth funding round include Gannett, US Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Sand Hill Capital. The company has raised $40 million thus far.
• Brides.com, a Condé Nast property, partnered with online video streaming company Mogulus to bring a live streaming feed to its Valentine's Day "wedding Extravaganza."
• LA-based startup mEgo, a social avatar widget, secured $2.5 million in second-round funding from angel investors. Funds will be used to develop an iPhone app and sync more blogging services and social networks. mEgo launched in November '07 and just registered its one millionth user.
• Moggle raised $10 million for a new virtual world/social network platform.

Campaigns of Note:

• Mountain Dew is launching an elaborate online campaign to promote Voltage, a new flavor.
• Bowing to growing speculation about where processed food actually comes from, Heinz changed its label to more prominently promote the image of a tomato.
• Coke is divorcing its three-year-old "Coke side of life" slogan for "Open happiness," a simpler message for a more global audience.

Overseas:

• Five US, the digital arm of the UK's channel 5, is relaunching on February 16th as Five USA. It will include The Beast, starring Patrick Swayze, and Tina Fey's 30 Rock.

Publishing:

• Mixx.com has joined Federated Media's collection of "conversational media sites," according to Federated Media. The latter recently announced plans to scale its staff back and focus on conversational marketing.
• Britannica 2.0 is following the Wikipedia model for better placement on Google search.
• Dummies.com, the online home of the popular "…for Dummies" publishing brand, has relaunched its ad-supported website. It now boasts how-to videos, bloggers, photo demonstrations, sweepstakes and topical newsletters.

Search:

• Visual search engine Searchme is launching a platform combining pay-per-click and display ads in one model. The feature purportedly turns PPC listings into display ads by providing an image of the destination site or a splash page.

Social Networks:

• RED Hearts, a trendspotting service "by teen girls for teen girls," just went live. On Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays through February, the findings of national "trendspotters" can be perused at no cost. Register at RedtheBook.com or iheartdaily.com.
• Mashable compiled a list of the top 40 Twitter brands. Mentionables include GM, Jet Blue, Luxor Hotel Casino and the Chicago Bulls.
• Market research firm Virtual Worlds management says $594 million was invested in 63 virtual worlds-related firms in 2008.
• Twitter's traffic is now rivaling that of longtime social news service digg. In the UK alone, it expanded 1000% over the past year.
• Hubspot launched Facebook Grader, a tool that determines which Facebook users are "elite" — more influential than others, that is.
• 24 Dutch newspapers belonging to publisher BDU launched Twitter accounts recently.
• Rumor has it social search engine Delver will close shop in a month unless it finds a buyer.