For $12 Student Becomes Google.com’s Owner for 1 Minute

According to a recent report, for $12 student became Google.com’s owner for 1 minute. Sanmay Ved said he was able to buy the domain name of the most powerful site on the Internet on September 29.

Ved, who is an MBA student at Babson College in Massachusetts, said that he saw a glitch on a Google’s site saying the Google.com was open for sale. And the price was convenient – $12.

He said that he thought the message was an error and was sure that his transaction would not go through. He described his experience in a short blog post on LinkedIn. Shortly after the transaction he noticed that his credit card was charged, so officially he became Google.com’s owner for 12 bucks.

He recalls that he received e-mails that confirmed his transaction, and messages that were targeted at Google’s domain administration team. He even posted online a picture with the glitch showing Google.com as available for sale.

The student said that he was curious to learn what Google domains were available for purchase. So he visited the company’s own tracker and to his surprise ‘Google.com’ was on the list. He couldn’t resist the offer and purchased the domain.

But rather than enjoying his new status as the most powerful website’s owner, Ved reportedly contacted Google’s team and reported the error. In a minute the transaction was invalidated and Ved lost ownership.

Google, on the other hand, wanted to do more for Ved and reward his honesty. As a result, the student was granted a reward via a program designed to provide people that spot vulnerabilities in the company’s services and products with money.

But the Babson student declined the reward. He requested Google to transfer money into the Art of Living India Foundation’s bank account. The Art of Living India Foundation is a non-for-profit designed to educate and empower people all around the world. When the company heard about the request, it doubled the cash reward.

Google declined to comment on the news that for $12 student became Google.com’s owner for 1 minute, or provide details on the sum it gave to charity.

Ved, however, is accustomed with Google’s ecosystem as he worked for the tech giant between 2007 and 2012 as an account strategist. He recently told reporters that he was a big fan of the company and that he loved what it did and stood for.