A man buys Google.com for $12

| Technology

A man buys Google.com for $12

Amazingly, a former Google employee was able to purchase the world’s most popular domain name Google.com.

Sanmay Ved was using Google’s new domain sales service domains.google.com, when he tried typing in a well-known website address.

He was shocked to find that Google.com was available to purchase so clicked the ‘add to cart’ button.

Expecting an error to occur at any time, Sanmay Ved proceeded with the transaction and then it was completed, instantly receiving two emails confirming he had just purchased Google.com for $12.

He said,

"I was hoping I would get an error at some time saying transaction did not go through, but I was able to complete the purchase, and my credit card was actually charged."

The domain name ownership was officially transferred to him but unsurprisingly minutes later he received an email from Google saying that they had cancelled his order.

He then contacted Google’s security team to alert them to the issue.

Unbelievably, this isn’t the first time that a tech giant has made an embarrassing blunder with their domain name, back in 2003 Microsoft managed to forget to renew their Hotmail.co.uk domain name, which expired and was bought by a member of the public.

Lucky, the member of public that bought the domain name immediately contacted Microsoft and arranged to hand it back over to them, but it could have ended a lot worse.

It is unclear how Google allowed for Google.com to be available for purchase but the issue has been resolved and Sanmay Ved has said Google acknowledged this incident. 

Luke Stanley