Student Said He Owned Google.com For A While

Accidents do happen from time to time, even though you might be the most powerful website on this planet as perceived by many. Sanmay Ved, a student at Babson College in Massachusetts, claimed that he actually paid $12 to own Google.com at the end of last month. Ved shared over on a LinkedIn blog post, “I was hoping I would get an error at sometime saying transaction did not go through, but I was able to complete purchase, and my credit card was actually charged [all sic]!”

The above happens to be a screenshot that Ved posted to LinkedIn in order to show of that the Google.com name was available for purchase, and he used Google’s own tracker to keep tabs on the domain name, and when he saw that Google.com was open for purchase, he went ahead. Ved then claimed to have alerted Google’s security team, before the transaction was cancelled shortly afterwards.

One of Google’s spokeswoman did confirm to The Huffington Post that Ved was offered a reward via Google Security Rewards Programs, which happens to be the very same program that offers up cash to those who managed to figure out vulnerabilities in Google products. Ved claimed that he turned down the reward, asking Google to send all proceeds to the Art of Living India Foundation. As part of this altruistic move, Google apparently sent not the original amount, but double the reward – now how about that for a happy ending?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Google