Sanmay Ved, a Google employee, purchased the domain google.com for $12 in September 2015 after the site was accidentally listed for sale.
Sanmay, a native of Mandvi in Gujarat, India, was working in ad sales at the big tech company when he discovered that the google.com domain was available for purchase at a symbolic price.
Considering that the Google domain is worth billions — if not trillions — of dollars, he found it strange that it was listed for just $12. Out of curiosity, he went through with the purchase and successfully acquired the google.com domain temporarily.
He received a confirmation email and was granted access to the website’s admin tools for a few seconds before Google canceled the transaction and reclaimed the domain.
As a reward for his discovery, Google awarded him a $6,006.13 bonus — a number that resembles the word “Google“. Sanmay decided to donate the money to the Art of Living India Foundation, an organization that runs free schools across India.
In response to his generosity, Google doubled the donation to $12,000. “I don’t care about money. It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that people look for bugs, and it’s not always for financial gain,” Sanmay told Business Insider.
Sanmay worked at Google from 2007 to 2012 before returning in 2016 as an agency development manager. He now leads the management, operations, training, mentoring, and support of a team of account strategists.
Photo and video: Pixabay. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
