What Happens When You Own Google.com

For A Minute?

DOCKET

• Preface• Google Domain on Sale• Sanmay Ved• Availability Of Google.com• Confirmation Email• Cancellation Email • Master of The Internet• You Become Evil• Spooky• What I Would Have Done!

PREFACE

• Google began in March 1995 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Stanford University

• Google Inc. is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products

• Google.com is currently the world's most visited website

Google Domain on Sale

Sanmay Ved

• Sanmay Ved a great fan of Google, since he worked for them for five-and-a-half years

• He reportedly left the company to get his MBA

• Sanmay Ved, an ex-Google employee, happened to own Google.com, for a minute on 29th September, 2015

Availability Of Google.com

• Sanmay Ved was using the tech firm’s new domain buying service Google Domains at 1.30 a.m. on 29 September when he noticed that google.com was available to buy

• He added it to his shopping cart and, to his surprise, the transaction went through

• Ex-Googler  Sanmay Ved  was the lucky buyer of Google.com

Confirmation Email

• Sanmay received two emails from Google

• One from sc-noreply@google.com and another from wmt-noreply@google.com, which usually doesn't take place when you book domains via Google Domains

• Ved’s inbox and Google Webmaster Tools (also known as Google Search Console) was updated with sensitive information intended for the original owners of the domain – the webmasters of Google

Cancellation Email 

• Ved managed to buy Google.com for $12 that is roughly Rs 800, the purchase was soon followed by a cancellation email from Google Domains

• Google was able to revoke Ved’s ownership on its domain as the registration service used by him belonged to Google

• Ved’s ownership of google.com lasted a mere minute

Master of The Internet

• Contrary to the usual search bar and the Google logo/doodle that welcomes you, how would it feel to open the page and read, “Welcome, Master. What do you want to know?”

• The Internet is like an iceberg, and to sit on top of the iceberg has to be a special feeling, and that special feeling commands a special authority

Contd..

• In the one hot minute, you become the source of the entire world’s queries, you are the source of all activity. Ah, what a feeling!

• Chances are high that you will start celebrating your best purchase ever, and I’m feeling lucky will reach different heights altogether

You Become Evil

• “Do the right thing” is still an ambiguous statement. What matters, is what seems right to you

• When power is erroneously handed over to someone, cataclysmic things can happen

• We quiver to think what may happen to the world if your alter ego takes over in that one fatal minute

SPOOKY

• You simply sit in front of your computer screen, and think what should be your next step of action

• In the meantime, Google officials are notified of the mistake, they take back what’s rightfully theirs, and leave you a mail saying that your transaction has been cancelled

What I Would Have Done!

• Welcome back to being mortal, when Power is on the tip of your finger

• I wonder how different people will take this opportunity as, maybe I would get all the cash transaction that takes place in my account & be the richest man on the planet

• Tell us your ideas, what wacky you would do if you own Google. Comment your ideas below…