Sanmay Ved got the deal of a lifetime for a paltry $12.
By Raif Karerat
Late last month, a former employee managed to buy the Google.com URL via Google Domains for a paltry $12.
In a LinkedIn blog post, Sanmay Ved said he was putzing around Google Domains and discovered that Google.com was available for purchase. Naturally, he bought it.
“I was hoping I would get an error at sometime saying transaction did not go through,” wrote Ved. “But I was able to complete [the] purchase, and my credit card was actually charged,” he remarked.
The purchase was almost immediately followed by a cancellation email from Google Domains. About a week later, Ved was contacted by Google Security, which offered him a reward.
“I wrote back and told them it was never about the money,” he said, according to PC Magazine. Instead, he asked that the money be donated to the Art of Living India Foundation charity. Google agreed, and even doubled the reward for the Art of Living’s education program, which runs 404 free schools across 18 states in India.
Speaking to Business Insider, Sanmay said: “I don’t care about the money. It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that it’s people who want to find bugs and that it’s not always about the money.”
Sanmay is also a former Google employee – and admitted that he found the domain after constantly checking the site. He also said that Google paid the donation to his charity of choice soon after the prime minister of India Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley.
2 Comments
Intelligent man. Smart when he found the bug, but even smarter because of what he did with the money. He benefited a charity close to his own heart and Google opened its own heart. How smart can that be? Google even has former employees who are good!
I love the happy ending. Good for Mr. Ved, and good for Art of Living.