Babson Student Makes $12k For 'Owning' Google.com For HOW Long?

WELLESLEY, MA - A Babson College MBA student who “owned” Google.com for one minute received over $12,000 for discovering a glitch.

Last September Sanmay Ved purchased Google’s domain name for a modest $12 while messing around with the website registration service Google Domains, the Boston Globe reported. The student took screenshots to document how he made the purchase.

Ved wrote in a Linkedin post that he searched “google.com” on Google domains and was surprised to find the address was listed as available. He completed the purchase and his credit card was charged without error.

“My Google Search Console (aka Google Webmaster Tools) was auto-updated with webmaster related messages for the Google.com domain which actually means ownership was transferred to me!” Ved wrote in the Linkedin post.

One minute later Ved received an email informing him that his order had been cancelled, the Boston Globe reported.

Ved was initially offered $6,006.13 (which is “Google” spelled spelled out numerically, try squinting if you don’t see it) for discovering the loophole, Google wrote in a posting on its online security blog.

Google doubled the sum when Ved donated his reward to the Art of Living India Foundation, according to the blog post.

“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. The schools nurture the complete child, including body, mind and spirit,” Ved wrote on Linkedin.