Man who bought ‘Google.com’ donates security reward to charity

Turns out, Sanmay Ved is happy just being known as the guy who owned Google.com for a mere minute.

The Babson University student achieved Internet fame earlier this month after he was able to successfully purchase Google.com for just US$12 thanks to an error in Google Domains, the tech giant’s domain registration service. But when Ved was offered a reward through Google’s Security Rewards Program, he declined and asked the tech giant to donate the money to charity instead.

“Per my request, they will now donate the reward amount (they have doubled the amount as it is now going to charity) to the Art of Living India foundation,” read an update on Ved’s LinkedIn page.

“I have chosen that the donation be made towards the Art of Living’s education program which runs 404 free schools across 18 states of India, providing free education to more than 39,200 children in the slum, tribal and rural belts where child labor and poverty are widespread.”

READ MORE: Man successfully buys ‘Google.com’ for one minute, becomes Internet hero

Ved was playing with Google Domains when he discovered Google.com was listed as available for purchase.

As an experiment, Ved added the domain to his cart and, to his surprise, was able to successfully complete the transaction. Shortly after, Google.com began showing up in notifications in his Google Webmaster Tools, proving that he did in fact own one of the most iconic web domains in the world.

But, sadly, it didn’t last very long. Within a minute he received an email from Google Domains stating that his purchase had been cancelled.

The error that allowed him to purchase the domain has since been fixed; however, Ved noted that he will not disclose any more details surrounding the error as part of an agreement with Google.