Google Domain Was Once Sold For Just $12 To An Indian Man. Here's What Happened Next

In 2015, Sanmay Ved, a former Google employee from Mandvi, Gujarat, briefly owned Google.com after discovering the domain was available for purchase on Google Domains. He bought it for just $12 and gained access to Google's webmaster tools before the company realized the error and canceled the transaction. 

Google rewarded Ved with 6,006.13 (around Rs 4.07 lakh) for his discovery, later doubling the amount when he decided to donate the money to charity. Ved chose to donate the entire reward to the a charity Foundation, which runs 404 free schools across 18 states, providing education to over 39,200 children in underprivileged areas.

Google also acknowledged the participation of researchers from around the world in its security rewards program.

Ved provided a detailed account of the unexpected incident on LinkedIn, explaining how he discovered "google.com" was available on Google Domains.

"At 1:20 a.m. Eastern Time, he was exploring the platform when he entered the domain into the search bar and was surprised to find it listed as available. Contrary to usual indications, the option to add the domain to his cart was visible, which is typically not seen unless a domain is genuinely available for sale," he wrote.

"Upon clicking the "add to cart" icon, the domain was successfully added to his cart, confirmed by a green checkmark. Ved proceeded to checkout, curious to see if the transaction would go through. He recalled, "I was hoping I would get an error at some time saying the transaction did not go through, but I was able to complete the purchase, and my credit card was actually charged!"