Jennifer Lopez’s Iconic 2000 Grammys Dress Is The Reason Why Google Images Exists

Jennifer Lopez’s green Versace dress at the 2000 Grammys helped launched Google Images. The singer created headlines when she arrived in her gown that was cut down-to-there, as noted by several publications. Jennifer also became the most searched-for query on Google, prompting the launch of Google Images. Everybody knew at the time that Jennifer’s dress was iconic, but they weren’t aware that it would also make history.

Google co-founders noticed the sudden surge of searches for Lopez’s 2000 Grammy Awards dress, and wanted to create an easier way to search for the sexy green number.

In an essay for Project Syndicate, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said he that had no clue that Jennifer’s dress would be so popular. He knew that he wanted users to get the information they need quickly and accurately.

“Our cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, kept iterating. They started with images. After all, people wanted more than just text. This first became apparent after the 2000 Grammy Awards, where Jennifer Lopez wore a green dress that, well, caught the world’s attention. At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: J.Lo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”

Users were able to find out that Jennifer’s dress was directly taken from the runway at the Spring 2000 Versace show. Amber Valletta was the lucky woman to first wear the sexy stunner.

Schmidt also explained how the Google search engine was created. They wanted to create a search engine that was accurate and could guess what the user was typing.

“When Google was launched, people were amazed that they were able to find out about almost anything by typing just a few words into a computer.”

The launch of Google Images was 15 years ago. Elle magazine noted that Jennifer Lopez’s dress was probably the first dress that “broke the internet.” Most recently was the huge internet debate about whether a woman’s dress was black and blue or white and gold.

Jennifer Lopez has been creating headlines for having people guess whether or not she’s single. At the recent American Idol eliminations, the judge and performer laid the rumors to rest. Lopez said that she’s very much “single,” even though she was spotted kissing ex-boyfriend Casper Smart a few weeks ago. Lopez was also asked if she heard of Jay Z’s new Tidal service, but she didn’t seem interested in learning more about it. Tidal has also been receiving its share of backlash and criticism from people on social media.

What are your thoughts on Jennifer Lopez’s green Versace dress at the 2000 Grammys? Do you think it was a moment that forever changed the way we search for things on the internet?

[Image: Scott Gries/ImageDirect]