
Google offers a bounty for detecting a bug in their system, and recently rewarded a former employee who purchased their own domain name.
We reported recently that Google.com was recently for sale, and was quickly snatched up by an eager purchaser. According to a report from PC Mag, the former Google employee nabbed the URL Google.com on the company’s domain marketplace for just $12. Even though he only got to hang on to the website for a brief moment, Google still made the purchase worth his while.
Google has a program where they issue “bounty” for people reporting bugs in their system. Typically, these bugs are well disguised and only apparent to those who seek them out. When Sanmay Ved received his confirmation of purchase for the domain Google.com, however, it was apparent that something had gone terribly wrong.
“I was hoping I would get an error at sometime saying transaction did not go through, but I was able to complete the purchase and my credit card was actually charged!” wrote Ved. “Quite clearly, the ownership had been granted to me. Order was successful.”
Google rewarded Ved with a bounty for finding the bug, but Ved was not interested in any monetary gain from the transaction. Instead, Ved requested to Google that the money be donated to the Art of Living India Foundation Charity, which runs 404 free schools throughout 18 different states in India. Google even matched his donation with one of their own.
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