Product or service · Search and discovery

Google Image Search (2001)

In July 2001 Google began searching images, with about 250 million of them indexed. Years later Eric Schmidt said the idea came from searches for the green dress Jennifer Lopez wore at the 2000 Grammys, the most popular query the company had seen at the time.

There is no official image with documented origin for this record yet. The museum prefers showing no image to using one of uncertain origin.

July 2001

Google Image Search

Product or service · Search and discovery · Active

sources · timeline 2000–2004

Interpretive reconstruction · Classic serif Early-2000s conventions: white background, small sans-serif text, dense blue links. Does not reproduce any Google page.

Dates

July 2001 Launch · approximate date [1]

What the sources say

Claim	Record	Confidence	Sources
Images at launch	About 250 million	3 · Secondary source	[1] secondary
Origin as told by Eric Schmidt	Searches for Jennifer Lopez's green dress at the 2000 Grammys Statement	3 · Secondary source	[1] secondary

What the confidence levels mean

Names

Google Image Search — official name
Google Imagens — localized name (Brazilian Portuguese)

Historical captures

No archived capture has been located for this record yet.

Sources

Google says J Lo is why we have image search — Quartz. Source secondary · accessed November 2, 2026 · look for a copy on the Internet Archive

What still needs documenting

Official launch announcement
Eric Schmidt's original Project Syndicate text
Exact launch date

On GD

GD has followed Google since 2006. Search GD for “Google Image Search” (in Portuguese)

How to cite

"Google Image Search (2001)", Google Museum (GD), https://gd.eurisko.com.br/museu/en/collection/google-imagens-2001/, CC BY 4.0. Reviewed on November 2, 2026.

ID: google-imagens-2001 · Reviewed on November 2, 2026