College Student Buys Google.com for $12 and Donates Money to Charity

If I could go back in time, I would absolutely purchase a crap ton of domain names. As many of the .coms as I could think of. Anyone starting a website today knows the scarcity of domains, especially those of the .com variety. It's basically all nope.com. That's why all the .biz, .is, and all the others exist, this is also why so many tech companies spell their names all goofy.

But occasionally you come across a winner, or one that someone's been sitting on for years and finally gives up or forgets about. That's what Sanmay Ved of Babson College in Massachusetts was searching for while using Google Tracker, when he realized that Google.com was available ... and for only $12. As anyone with a lick of smarts and basic knowledge of internet would do, he snatched that baby up.

What he did next, though, sets him apart. Instead of trying to cash in on his lucky find, he called up Google's security team to alert them of their mistake. Once Google was aware of the problem, they quickly revoked Sanmay's ownership and offered him a reward - which he turned down. In a post on LinkedIn, he wrote that "Google Security has now contacted me, and has offered me a $x reward in a very Googley way. I have opted to donate the money to charity (Google has therefore doubled the reward amount)."

While the actual amount Google donated hasn't been disclosed, Sanmay suggested it might be more than $10,000. While that's merely a drop in the bucket for Google, it's a big win for Art of Living India Foundation, the charity in which he told Google to donate the money.

In an interview with Business Insider, Samnay said, "I don't care about the money. 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."

Well done, Samnay! In a world full of greed, you're a google loving breath of fresh air. Now, hopefully you get a job at Google or they purchase the companies you're starting - you seem like a savvy dude, so I'm sure you've got a few.