Google search gets a dose of Kevin Bacon

This is awesome. Google’s just added a brilliant new tool to its search arsenal. You can now search according to the Bacon number.

The new tool allows you to search for the connections between actors, actresses and Kevin Bacon. Yup, Google just made went and built Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon into its search offering.

If you’re mouthing “Six Degrees of whatnow?” at the moment, here’s Wikipedia’s explanation of how it works:

The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation he or she has from Bacon, as defined by the game

The computation of a Bacon number for actor X is a “shortest path” algorithm:

• Kevin Bacon has a Bacon number of 0.
• Those actors who have worked directly with Kevin Bacon have a Bacon number of 1.
• If the lowest Bacon number of any actor with whom X has appeared in a movie is N, X’s Bacon number is N + 1.

Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:

Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner

Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon

Therefore Asner has a Bacon number of 1, and Presley (who never appeared in a film with Bacon) has a Bacon number of 2.

If you want to use the new tool, just type “bacon number” followed by the actor or actress’ name. Here’s one we did for Emma Watson: