00:00What if you accidentally bought Google for $12? That's exactly what happened to Sunmay Wade in
00:052015, and his choice to do the right thing turned a wild glitch into a lesson in integrity.
00:11Buckle up for a tech tale that's equal parts crazy and inspiring.
00:16Sunmay, a Mumbai-born codder, grew up with big dreams and a knack for tech.
00:20After stints at Amazon and Google, he was just messing around one evening on Google domains.
00:26For fun, he typed in google.com. Shockingly, it was available. For $12, he clicked buy,
00:33and for a minute, he owned one of the world's biggest websites. Imagine the power,
00:38he could've redirected it, sold it, or caused internet chaos. But Sunmay didn't,
00:44no screenshots for clout, no media frenzy. He quietly reported the bug to Google,
00:49who fixed it fast. His move wasn't about fame, it was about decency.
00:55Google's response was classy. They offered a $6,000 bug bounty, but Sunmay asked them to donate
01:01it to charity. Google doubled it to $12,000 for the Art of Living India Foundation and added him
01:07to their security hall of fame. No TikTok virality, just pure integrity.
01:13This story hits hard because it's rare. In a world chasing likes and cash,
01:17Sunmay chose character over chaos. He reminds us that even tech giants like Google aren't perfect,
01:24bugs happen. But people like him, who find and fix flaws without exploiting them,
01:29keep the digital world spinning. Sunmay's still out there, working in tech,
01:34advocating for better bug bounties and transparency. Not loud, not flashy, just making a difference.
01:41His 60-second ownership of Google wasn't about power,
01:44it was about doing what's right when no one's watching. So, what would you do? If you stumbled
01:50onto Google.com for $12, would you go viral, try to cash in, or report it?
01:56Sunmay's story challenges us to think about integrity in a noisy world.
02:00It's not about hashtags, it's about choices that matter.
02:04Want to spread some good? Share this story. It's a reminder that doing the right thing never
02:09goes out of style, even in the wild world of tech.
Comments