How an Iconic Outfit of Jennifer Lopez Led to the Creation of This Life-Changing Tech
In the year 2000, the Grammy Awards witnessed a moment that would leave an indelible mark on both fashion and technology. Jennifer Lopez graced the red carpet in a green, leaf print Versace dress that became one of the most talked-about outfits in fashion history. This dress did more than just turn heads; it ignited the origin of a revolutionary tech feature that seems so common in today’s world– Google Image Search, as reported by Daily Mail. During Donatella Versace’s Spring 2020 womenswear collection show, this iconic moment was celebrated with a dash of nostalgia and a pinch of tech innovation. As the show started, a Google image search field appeared on a screen, nudging, “Okay Google, show me the Versace jungle dress.” This was followed by images of the original 2000 look. Then came the command, “Okay Google, show me the real Versace jungle dress,” and out walked J. Lo herself, reviving the iconic moment.
The story behind this dress is not just about fashion; it’s a testament to the immense influence of the industry. Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, once shared, “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.”
Cathy Edwards, Google’s director of engineering and product for Google Images, confirmed the authenticity of the tale. Edwards remarked, “It is completely true…but it is also not the case that this happened and the next day we said, Oh, we should build an image search engine!...and everyone there at the time was like, Of course, we need to build an image search engine, but they weren’t sure how much priority to give it…it became so clear that this was important, but they didn’t have anyone to do it.”
As per GQ, by the summer of 2001, engineers Huican Zhu and Susan Wojcicki, the current CEO of YouTube, launched Google Image Search, forever changing the way we navigate the internet. Edwards asserted, “It really just reflects how infinite, accessible information has really changed the world…very, very few people [were] able to really experience a fashion show, and then maybe there was some dissemination, but you had to buy a magazine, right? And you had to be the right magazine that had this dress in it. [Then] suddenly, anyone, any time, can do these queries. People are still doing queries for ‘Jennifer Lopez green dress,’ ‘Jennifer Lopez jungle print dress,’ ‘Jennifer Lopez Grammys dress,’ [that] sort of thing.”
Edwards noted, “I think they knew that information was extraordinarily powerful, and that democratizing information in this way, organizing it and making it useful, making it accessible, was going to be powerful. But I think it’s hard to predict this level of impact that search, and the Internet and Google has had on the world. I think everyone’s a bit surprised by that.”
