Last fall, Babson University student Sanmay Ved became the luckiest guy on the Internet after successfully purchasing “Google.com” for just $12.
Now we’re learning it cost Google $12,000 to get it back.
Ved was playing with Google Domains – the tech giant’s domain registration service – when he discovered Google.com was listed as available for purchase. After his credit card was successfully charged, 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.
READ MORE: Man successfully buys ‘Google.com’ for one minute, becomes Internet hero
Of course, Google quickly cancelled the purchase – later stating that the domain was only available thanks to an error – and later offered Ved an award for bringing the flaw to their attention.
According to Google’s online security blog, the Internet giant initially offered Ved $6,006.13 – which spells out ‘Google’ numerically. The company then doubled the amount to $12,000 when they heard Ved had chosen to donate his reward to charity.
READ MORE: Business owner beware – securing your domain name can be tricky and costly
The money came from Google’s security awards program, which is designed to thank researchers who find security issues and bugs within Google’s services. According to the blog, the company gave out over $2 million in 2015 to over 300 researchers.
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