Google Images’s latest update appears to be taking some inspiration from the digital pinboard platform Pinterest. The company is celebrating Google Images’s 25th anniversary this week by looking back at its history and announcing a major redesign that turns the search engine into more of a personalized visual feed. It all started with a green dress that broke the internet more than two decades ago. In a blog post, Google recounted how it launched its image search engine after noticing a huge spike in interest in the now-iconic green Versace dress Jennifer Lopez wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards. At the time, though, Google Search was largely limited to a list of blue text links. “People didn’t just want to read about the dress—they wanted to see it,” wrote Search Senior Enginering Director Brad Kellett in the blog post. “So in July 2001, we launched Google Images, making it possible for the first time to search and instantly explore visual content from across the web.”
Google Images has since evolved with the times. The company introduced the ability to search using an image instead of text in 2011. In 2018, it integrated Google Lens into Search, allowing people to use their phone cameras to identify objects, translate text, and find products online.
