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Technology and the Internet

Mr. W.E.B. Has Initial Stake in Web Business

By KAREN KAPLAN

William E. Bloomfield’s parents surely had no idea how opportune their son’s initials would become. Bloomfield used them to name his Redondo Beach-based appliance rental service, Web Service Co. Inc., and in 1996 he registered the web.com domain name.

Today, the site (https://www.web.com) has nothing to do with appliances. Instead, it features Web site directories and a search engine powered by GoTo.com. The company’s newest service, called Web Address, lets users sign up for free domain names that end in web.com, such as myname.web.com. Those domains would link visitors to existing sites--which presumably have more cumbersome addresses--and frame them with ads.

Technology and the InternetBusiness
Karen Kaplan

Karen Kaplan covers science and medical research for the Los Angeles Times. She has been a member of the science team since 2005, including 13 years as an editor. Her first decade at The Times was spent covering technology in the Business section as both a reporter and editor. She grew up in San Diego and is a graduate of MIT and Columbia University.

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