Sanmay Ved, an ex-employee of Google, could have never thought that one day he would own Google.com, one of the world's most visited sites. Even strange for him probably would have been the thought that he would also be paid a whopping Rs.8 Lakh for it, even though he was the owner of the Google.com domain for just one minute.
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In a blog post on Google's security practices, Google Security's Eduardo Vela Nava writes that the company paid over Rs.8 lakh to Ved, who is from Kutch region, after he managed to buy Google.com for a minute. Actually, initially the amount that company paid was around Rs.4 lakh but then later doubled it when Ved said he would donate the money to a charity.Look for this symbol , and click it to view shopping offers from your favourite merchants. All of this, from within this page!
It all happened on a night in September 2015 when Ved was idly scrolling through domain names. He saw that Google.com was available for purchase. Ved clicked and added it to his virtual cart. To his shock he saw the domain name was actually added to his cart.
Sharing his experience in a LinkedIn post, Ved wrote, "I clicked the add to cart icon beside the domain (which should not appear if the domain is not for sale). The domain actually got added to my cart as seen by the green check-box and the domain appeared in my cart."
Ved decided to purchase the domain names, assured of the fact that this transaction would be interrupted in the midway. To his surprise, he managed to purchase the domain name and his credit card was actually charged a small amount of $12.
Ved confirmed that the domain also appeared in his Google Domains order history and his Google Webmaster Tools was updated with webmaster related messages for the Google.com. His Google Domains order history page also showed the domain name confirming that Ved had actually bought it.
However, it all lasted one minute. He received message confirming his ownership along with his name reflecting in the Google Search Console for websites that are powered by Google sites. But then soon another message followed.
In no time, Google had apparently realised the glitch and had sent an order cancellation email from its domains. Google's security team later contacted Ved, offering him $ 6,006.13 for his adventure. Why the unusual figure? The figure actually looked like GOOGLE as in the doodle, the security team said. Ved, who holds an MBA degree from Babson College, wrote back to Google apparently telling the company that it was never about money. He reportedly told Google that the money should be donated to Art of Living Foundation. The good gesture from Ved was met by Google with another good gesture. The company doubled the amount and donated it to the foundation.
In no time, Google had apparently realised the glitch and had sent an order cancellation email from its domains. Google's security team later contacted Ved, offering him $ 6,006.13 for his adventure. Why the unusual figure? The figure actually looked like GOOGLE as in the doodle, the security team said. Ved, who holds an MBA degree from Babson College, wrote back to Google apparently telling the company that it was never about money. He reportedly told Google that the money should be donated to Art of Living Foundation. The good gesture from Ved was met by Google with another good gesture. The company doubled the amount and donated it to the foundation.
The information about the money paid to Ved was revealed by Google in a blog post that detailed company's security work with freelancer (also called bug-bounty hunters). The company said that in total it awarded over $2 million to security researchers in 2015. Here are the figures Google has shared.
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