Man Who Bought Google.com Is Handing Over His Reward to Charity

After Google was sold for $12 (approximately Rs. 790), the company is giving a reward to ex-Googler Sanmay Ved, who was the owner of the Google.com domain for a few minutes. Except, Ved's not interested in taking the money, and would rather see it go to charity.

Ex-Googler Sanmay Ved bought Google.com for $12 and held on to the domain for a few minutes, before Google realised what had happened and cancelled the accidental sale of the domain, and Ved was refunded his $12.

(Also see: How This Ex-Googler Bought Google.com for $12)

"Google could do this given the registration service used by me (aka Google Domains) belonged to Google, unlike the 2003 event in which Microsoft forgot to renew their Hotmail UK domain which was registered with Nominet UK. As a result, the Hotmail UK domain was returned to the open market for pickup by anybody who fancied it," Ved said. "Somebody else picked it up, and as Microsoft wasn't the registrar themselves, Microsoft wasn't able to cancel the order, and take it back automatically. In my case, I don't know what caused Google to lose ownership of the domain Google.com as a result of which it was available in the open market."

Ved reported the matter to the Google Security Team, and believes a bug was behind the accidental purchase. Tech companies typically have bug-bounty programs to give monetary rewards to people who discover bugs in their systems, but Ved said said that he wasn't interested, and would rather see the money go to charity.

"I don't care about the money, " Ved told Business Insider. "It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that it's people who want to find bugs that it's not always about the money."

Google decided to give a reward to Ved, and because he's giving the money to a charity - The Art of Living Foundation - the company even decided to double the amount it would pay out. Ved didn't disclose the amount that was given, but it was "more than $10,000".