Tops with women

Niche social network CafeMom has raised $12 million in financing, pegging total funding around $20 million.

News of the funding followed research results in November that dubbed CafeMom the most-trafficked site for women (says Mashable via comScore).

Launched in November '06, the site has six million monthly visitors and 120 million page views.

CafeMom competes in a market largely composed of older websites like iVillage and BabyCenter, which followed in second and third place as top destinations for women late last year. (At ninth place was Glam Media, which last June beat iVillage for top network among women.)

CafeMom's success may be attributed in part to its social networking characteristics. The site includes a Digg-like feature, the "Hot List," where users may submit mom-related news from around the web. The Hot List gets 100+ "bumps" and dozens of comments, according to Mashable.