Jennifer Lopez revives dress behind the invention of Google Images
Photographs of the singer wearing the gown in 2000 led to the invention of Google Image search. …
Image copyright Getty Images US singer Jennifer Lopez has revived her iconic green Versace dress that led to the invention of Google Images.
Lopez, 50, first wore the gown to the Grammy Awards in February 2000.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt later revealed there were so many searches for photos of the dress afterwards, it inspired them to create Google Images.
Footage of Lopez modelling the modern version of the dress at Versace’s S/S 2020 show has been viewed more than two million times on social media.
Friday’s show, at Milan Fashion Week, paid homage to both the original dress, and to Lopez.
Vogue reports that the final few models in the show walked the catwalk to Lopez’s 2001 song Love Don’t Cost a Thing, before a montage of Google Image searches for the original Grammy’s dress was projected on to the walls.
As if talking to an Alexa assistant, a voice announced: “OK, Google. Now show me the real dress.”
The pop star and Hollywood actress then walked out to cheers from the crowd.
A fashion and tech icon
Google was founded in 1998, but Google Images wasn’t introduced to the site until July 2001.
“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,” Mr Schmidt wrote in Project Syndicate in 2015.
“It was better than anything else, but not great by today’s standards.
“So our co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – like all successful inventors – 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: JLo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born.”
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