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Man who owned Google.com for one minute was given payout by Google techs for reporting the error Sanmay Ved then donated the full undisclosed amount... Google Rewards Man Who Bought Google.com And Then He Gives It Away
  • Man who owned Google.com for one minute was given payout by Google techs for reporting the error
  • Sanmay Ved then donated the full undisclosed amount to an India based charity
  • …So Google doubled the amount

Sanmay Ved, the man who became the proud owner of the www.Google.com domain for less that one minute earlier this month, was rewarded with a monetary gift by Google for reporting the error.

But the former owner of www.Google.com, Ved, said he wasn’t really all that interested in the money, and asked instead that it be donated to the Art of Living India Foundation, an Indian charity that provided almost 40 thousand children with access to free education last year.

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The guys at Google then had a bit of a think about it, said OK, and gave the money to the charity, but doubled the amount that was on offer.

While neither Ved, nor Google have specified the amount, it has been claimed the amount was just over $10,000.

“I don’t care about the money.” Ved said, in an interview with 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.”

Ex Google employee, Ved, bought the Google.com domain for just $12 on September 29th.  Now working for Amazon.com, Ved was amazed to start receiving emails explicitly meant for the real owners of Google just seconds after completing the purchase. The experience lasted  just one minute however before Google recognised the mistake, and cancelled the transaction.

Keenly aware that no one else in the world would believe that he had managed to buy www.Google.com, Ved guaranteed no one could doubt his story  by detailing his 60 second moment of glory, taking as many screenshots as he could of his short adventure as he could. He then released the details of his minute long escapade in a LinkedIn post, a few days later.

While the story and the tech world has gone internet viral crazy for Mr Ved, it seems he is happy to just  be remembered as the man who managed to own Google, albeit for less than a minute.

As Ved says himself, it was never about the money, and his selfless actions have only proven the point.