The world famous search engine Google has paid $6,006.13 (about Rs 4.07 lakh) to Sanmay Ved, the man who purchased the domain Google.com for $12 owned it for about a minute in September 2015. He also gained access to its webmaster tools before Google cancelled the sale. Then later the purchase was cancelled and Ved’s $12 was refunded.
“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”, said Ved to the Business Insider.
The given amount was later doubled when Ved announced that he will be donating his reward to The Art of Living India education programme which runs 404 free schools across 18 states in India, providing free education to more than 39,200 children. Google was so impressed by his generosity that they decided to double the amount to $12,012.26.
“You may have read about Sanmay Ved, a researcher who was able to buy Google.com for one minute on Google Domains. Our initial financial reward to Sanmay – USD 6,006.13 – spelled-out Google, numerically (squint a little and you’ll see it!). We then doubled this amount when Sanmay donated his reward to charity,” Google said in a blog post.