Sanmay Ved, a former Google employee, briefly owned the domain Google.com after purchasing it through Google's domain service. He received confirmation emails intended for Google before ownership was revoked minutes later. The article speculates how someone could feel like the "master of the internet" for those few minutes and discusses possibilities for what might happen, from celebrating the purchase to concerns about how power could be misused if ownership was not revoked. It concludes by asking readers what they would do if they owned Google.com for even a brief time.

1. What Happens When You Own
Google.com For A Minute?

2. 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!

3. 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

4. Google Domain on Sale

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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…