Gujarat man bought Google.com for just Rs 800

Ex-Googler Sanmay Ved was hunting around for domain names on Google Domains when he struck gold. He managed to see that Google.com was available, he immediately hit the buy button and to his luck, he got it just for $12 (approx Rs 800).

While searching for domain names around the web, Ved was greeted with Google.com showing up as a happy green face, which meant that it was available for purchase. He went ahead to click on buy, and the domain name was surprisingly added to his shopping cart. He checked out with Google.com for a puny amount of just $12, and his credit card account was transacted with the amount immediately.

The transaction happened at 1.20 AM EST on September 29, 2015. Ved expected the option of buying to give him an error as Google.com, the most trafficked website in the world, was not supposed to be on sale. If the domain name was not available, it would have shown up as a gray sad face. To his surprise, he saw a happy green face next to the domain name availability, which meant that the domain name was available on sale.

Strangely, a minute later he started receiving messages and emails showing that the transaction was successfully done, and the Google.com domain was listed in his Google Domains order history. In addition to the purchase, his Google Search Console (or Webmaster Tools) was automatically updated and showed that the Google.com ownership transferred to his name. If you are a verified admin for the particular domain name, you are bound to receive messages that you are in command of the domain. This meant that the complete order was complete and successful.

Unfortunately, but not surprising too, Google Domain’s email address followed in a few minutes only to inform him that about a cancellation of the transaction. Definitely, Google.com is not up for sale, at least for a few years until renewal. It was a small glitch that listed Google.com as an available domain for sale. A few minutes later, Ved received an email from Google Domain stating that the order was cancelled and his money was refunded back to his account.

This is not as common, but yes, it was an incident where history repeated itself. The last time when a similar case happened it was with Microsoft. In 2003, the tech giant actually delayed (or forgot) to renew the Hotmail UK domain (registered with Nominet UK) and was open to the market for purchase by anyone. Unfortunately, Microsoft could not reverse the transaction, and the domain was picked by someone else.

Sanmay feels very lucky to own Google.com, even if it was for just a minute or so. Ved reported the incident to Google Security, and Google has acknowledged the incident by repliying back to him.

Photo credits: Sanmay Ved, via Linkedin