Man who bought Google domain name for $12 gives his 'reward' from the search giant to charity

Sanmay Ved owned the search giant's 'google.com' domain for a few minutes before the company cancelled the sale

The domain name 'google.com' was briefly owned by a private individual before the search giant cancelled the sale (Getty)

The man who briefly owned the web address google.com before Google caught up with him has given the money the company paid him for identifying the 'glitch' to charity.

In recognition of his act of generosity, Google doubled the reward.

Sanmay Ved, a former Google employee, purchased the domain name through the company's own Google Domains service in September for just $12 (£7.80).

Google cancelled the sale minutes later.

Writing online, Mr Ved, a self-professed "loyal Googler", said the company had since contacted him and "offered me a $x reward in a very Googley way".

He requested they give the undisclosed amount to the Art of Living India foundation, an Indian educational charity, and said Google doubled the amount as a result.

In an interview with Business Insider, Mr Ved said: "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."

Google runs a reward programme that pays out to people who identify vulnerabilities in its online services, with amounts ranging from $100 to $20,000.

The search giant is not the first company to miss an opportunity to renew its domain ownership.

In 2003 Microsoft failed to renew the hotmail.co.uk domain name and the domain was snapped up by a private individual who later returned it to the company.