Start-Up Plans to Sell Web Addresses

Investor Bill Gross is planning one of the most ambitious attempts to bypass the bureaucracy that assigns Internet names, Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported.

A Pasadena, Calif., start-up called New.net, funded by Mr. Gross’s closely held company idealab!, this week plans to begin selling Internet domain names based on 20 new extensions that function like the familiar “.com” and “.net.” New.net’s proposed extensions include “.family,” “.tech,” “.sport” and “.xxx,” and the start-up plans to charge $25 for each name that uses one of the extensions.