You'll Never Guess What Google Paid This Guy K For
The .xyz registry launched a searchable domain name drop tool this week to encourage adoption of the new gTLD. The daily updated search tool could be useful for those monitoring .xyz for expiring registrations, and one company that might want to consider making use of it is a tech company you might have heard of: Alphabet.
Last year an ex-Google researcher experimenting with Google Domains found out that too clever a domain investment, and it can morph into a security bug, when he registered Google.com.
Google refunded the $12 Sanmay Ved paid to register its flagship domain, and then awarded him over $6,000 under its bug bounty program.
READ MORE: Google Domains Service Moves to .Google
“The Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Facebook and Google to promote a digital India did work wonders,” Ved wrote in a LinkedIn post shortly after the incident. “The very next day of his visit, it ended up convincing Google to sell what is perhaps their most prized possession to a person hailing from the small city of Mandvi in the Kutch region of the Indian Prime Minister’s home state…albeit just for a minute or so 
[sic].”
The company may have decided that its Alphabetization rendered its legacy domain obsolete, but if so, saner heads quickly prevailed.
Earlier this year the amount awarded to Ved was disclosed as part of Google’s annual review of its security rewards program. Ved originally received $6,006.13, a numerical rendition of the company name. The company doubled the amount after Ved announced he would donate the award to charity.
While the tool is really meant for registrants investing in domains, its launch provides a timely reminder for businesses in all industries that if your domain name is valuable, it should be carefully protected.
Source: TheWHIR