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Published 13:01 IST, September 23rd 2019

Lesser-known story behind how 'Google Images' was born 20 years ago

Google Images is an image search tool by Google that allows users to search for photos and images on the internet. But do you know the story behind how 'Google

Reported by: Tanmay Patange
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Google Images is an image search tool by Google that allows users to search for photos and images on the internet. We rely on Google Images every time we want to search for photos of our favourite celebrities, places and pretty much everything else. And while it feels like the option to search for photos and images on Google has always been there, the reality is a little different. Hence we ask you this question today: Do you know the story behind how 'Google Images' came to existence four years after Google Search?

Jennifer Lopez recreates iconic Grammy Awards dress, Google rejoices

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Green Versace dress of Jennifer Lopez

Nearly 20 years ago, a Green Versace dress designed by the Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace broke the internet. The jungle print dress was worn by superstar Jennifer Lopez at Grammy Awards and it became an overnight sensation. The image made such a strong impact on people's minds that it instantly became the most popular search query Google had seen around that time. The searches for JLo in the jungle print dress took over internet the night she wore it and also the next day of the Music event. While at the moment Google was looking at incorporating images in search but this was the ultimate push Google needed. The incident inspired Google to create Google Images. Earlier in 2015, Google president Eric Schmidt acknowledged that the massive attention to this dress indeed served as a motivation for the creation of Google Images search. Who would have thought that the ultra fashionable jungle dress could have a massive technological impact.

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Early days of Google

Back in 2000, as Google describes in its recent blog post, Google search results were nothing more than "a list of blue links." That's when folks over at Google Search realised they were not able to directly show the results (photos of Jennifer in her famous jungle print dress) that people wanted. Google Images continues to see millions of users and billions of search queries every day.

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"At Milan Fashion Week, we reunited with Donatella Versace to celebrate nearly two decades since this iconic moment in fashion (and Google) history. We showed off a new, revamped green dress in the print, designed by Donatella Versace and modeled by J.Lo," said Vincenzo Riili, Country Marketing Director, Google Italy.

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"Who knows where our next big idea might come from?" Riili added.

12:11 IST, September 23rd 2019