Google once forgot to renew its domain, Google.com, and somebody bought it
It still boggles my mind that Google once forgot to renew its domain, Google.com, and somebody bought it.
This was in 2015.
Sanmay Ved was browsing Google Domains one night trying to learn its interface.
As a test, he put in Google.com.
He clicked the add to cart button.
He's like, “What? This shouldn't work.”
Curious, he went through the full checkout process.
Then he got the message, “Transaction of $12 posted to your account,” and many more similar ones.
The dude literally bought and owned Google.com.
He got emails saying he was the owner of it.
He got to see all the secret sites that Google.com owned.
He was freaking out.
The market cap of Google at the time was $447 billion and he just bought its domain for $12.
And you can guess what happened next.
He gets this message saying the order was cancelled.
“Google has reverted the purchase,” acknowledged it, refunded him of course, and were nice enough to offer him a reward.
That reward was kept secret for a good minute.
Until The Verge revealed it: Google gave a reward of $6,006.13.
And if you squint real hard, this spells out Google.
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