

Google's "Bacon number" search - nsns
https://www.google.com/search?q=Bacon+number+Simon+Pegg

======
mixmax
I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers.

I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.

~~~
AncientPC
Probably because there's no easily accessible data store like IMDB for famous
mathematicians or computer scientists.

~~~
cschmidt
Actually there is an automated Erdos number search here:

<http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html>

using the MathSciNet reference database. Unfortuately, it is only accessible
to MathSciNet subscribers, so basically on all university campuses or
libraries.

My Erdos number is no higher than 5 :-).

~~~
evincarofautumn
Hm. My old professor has an Erdős number of 3. I should see about authoring a
paper with him…

------
smcl
Weird, Adolf Hitler is meant to have a Bacon number of 3, but he doesn't
return anything on Google. From the Wikipedia page:

Adolf Hitler was in Ewige Jude, Der (1940) with Curt Bois Curt Bois was in
Great Sinner, The (1949) with Kenneth Tobey Kenneth Tobey was in Hero at Large
(1980) with Kevin Bacon

~~~
irishcoffee
I see little need to waste CPU cycles on him, personally.

------
feefie
Google says Justin Bieber's bacon number is 4, but he was in Men In Black III
with Josh Brolin and Josh Brolin was in Hollow Man with Keven Bacon.

------
engtech
Turns out that Kevin Bacon is only the 444th best candidate for being the
center of a six degrees search of Hollywood.

<http://oracleofbacon.org/center.php>

~~~
engtech
The top five best centers for six degrees of hollywood separation are:

    
    
       Dennis Hopper (2.802166)
       Harvey Keitel (2.812642)
       Donald Sutherland (I) (2.819748)
       David Carradine (I) (2.819993)
       Udo Kier (2.826828)

------
waterlesscloud
I wonder what the cutoff for notability is. It seems to work for big names but
not bit part players. Oracle Of Bacon works with all of imdb, but I guess
google can't use that resource...

~~~
sethish
Boo, I have a bit part listed on IMDB and it does not work on my name.

~~~
waterlesscloud
I'm thinking they're using something like wikipedia movie entries as the
source. Something that just lists topline cast. As some other threads mention,
cameos from even well-known types may not be factored in.

------
dexter313
7

[http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow...](http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=0&suggon=0&safe=off&q=Bacon+number+William+Rufus+Shafter&btnG=Search)

~~~
3JPLW
It should be 2.

    
    
      William Shatner was in Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)[0] with Denise Richards[1]
      Denise Richards was in Wild Things (1998)[2] with Kevin Bacon
    

Source:
[http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse373/11wi/h...](http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse373/11wi/homework/7/expected_output_all.txt)

[0] <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107659/fullcredits#cast>

[1] <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000612/>

[2] <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120890/>

~~~
twoodfin
Shafter, not Shatner.

This guy is famous in Baconumerology, but I am skeptical that all the links
included count as "films".

------
soupboy
Doesn't work with Erdös number, in case any of you were wondering.

~~~
rglovejoy
Right. I tried finding out Erdös' Bacon number and nothing came up.

~~~
libria
4, if an Erdos/Bacon number were a thing:

P. Erdős and C. Pomerance published "On the largest prime factors of n and n
+1"

C. Pomerance and L. Adleman published "On Distinguishing Prime Numbers From
Composite Numbers"

L Adleman was a mathematical consultant in Sneakers with David Strathairn.

David Strathairn and Kevin Bacon appeared in The River Wild.

//edit, Randy Pausch actually appeared in a movie so I'm sure there's a
connection there, too.

~~~
philwelch
Yes, the elusive Bacon-Erdos number:
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdős–Bacon_number>

------
chubot
Hm, it seems like basically any actor you can think of off the top of your
head has a Bacon number of 2 (or less). I guess that makes sense. Anyone have
some interesting examples of 4+ bacon numbers??

~~~
imperialWicket
Justin Bieber (4) - admittedly an edge case, but a popular candidate without
close ties (yet). It also includes the "classical baby i ' m grown up now the
poetry show" link, with which I wasn't previously familiar.

~~~
jdpage
Justin Bieber is actually a 2. [http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-
bin/movielinks?a=Kevin+Bacon...](http://oracleofbacon.org/cgi-
bin/movielinks?a=Kevin+Bacon&b=Justin+Bieber)

------
mhartl
For the curious, confused, or uninitiated, this whole phenomenon is almost
certainly based on the coincidence that "separation" and "Kevin Bacon" sound
similar, combined with the well-known phrase "six degrees of separation"
(<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation>). Thus, "six
degrees of Kevin Bacon".

------
rurounijones
Well colour me shocked, I thought I would give Google a workout and try "Orson
Welles"... turns out his number is a very run-of-the-mill 2

~~~
lazugod
As are Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock (they even share the same Bacon
liaison).

------
essayist
It took me a while to find someone with a Bacon number>2: Prince

~~~
opinali
Try foreign _and_ old actors, e.g. Mazzaropi (famous Brazilian comedian from
the 1950'-70's), Google computes a bacon number 5... but The Oracle of Bacon
returns 3, they have a bigger database.

~~~
bratsche
I got to 3 with Bela Lugosi. I couldn't get any further, so I finally turned
to the comments to see who had >3.

------
hds
It doesn't appear to work if you are using google (even .com) in another
language, confirmed with Spanish (Castilian).

~~~
bibinou
append &hl=en to the URI :
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Bacon+number+Simon+Pegg&...](https://www.google.com/search?q=Bacon+number+Simon+Pegg&hl=en)

------
nsns
Discussion - [http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/13/google-six-
degree...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/13/google-six-degrees-
kevin-bacon)

------
c3d
Not using IMDB sometimes leads to incorrect results. For "Louis de Funès",
Google finds a Bacon number of 3:

Louis de Funès and Terry-Thomas appeared in Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot
At!. Terry-Thomas and Tom Aldredge appeared in The Mouse on the Moon. Tom
Aldredge and Kevin Bacon appeared in Taking Chance.

The Oracle finds 2: Louis de Funès was in Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973)
with Janet Brandt was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon

------
Jun8
What would be the most intuitive way to define negative Bacon numbers? If we
take this suggestion for negative Erdos numbers
([http://infactorium.blogspot.com/2009/01/negative-erdos-
numbe...](http://infactorium.blogspot.com/2009/01/negative-erdos-
numbers.html)), then this would be people who turned down an offer to star in
a movie with Bacon. There must be many people in this category.

------
ColinWright
I have an Erdös number of the first kind of 2, and an Erdös number of the
second kind of at most 3. I'm working on my Bacon number. So far I've appeared
on television with: Carol Vorderman, Gareth Jones, Angela Rippon, Fred
Dineage, and several others that I need to track down, but are even less well
known.

My challenge is working out who I have been with that might have been in a
film.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
You were juggling on How2?

~~~
ColinWright
Yup - "How do you juggle your numbers?" - the SiteSwap notation in action,
with the "jugglometer".

------
kevinpacheco
It's flawed. Google claims a Bacon number of > 1 for Johnny Carson, Rosie
O'Donnell and Jay Leno, but he sat for interviews on their talk shows. Also,
the results for some musicians include recorded-footage appearances in movies
where they had no interaction with the cast.

~~~
ok_craig
Still seems to be just a rather clear distinction between being in a movie or
not being in a movie, regardless of significance of the part or role played.
To me this doesn't seem like a flaw.

------
mammalfriend
What this tells me is that someone in the Google PR department had an idea,
and a bunch of really smart people actually were resourced to work on it.
While at the same time, my search results for useful queries have more spam
than ever.

Hm.

~~~
endeavor
Hopefully this was a 20% project.

------
seangransee
so far, the highest bacon number i've found is from another actor with the
last name "Bacon"

<https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+number+lloyd+bacon>

------
jdechko
Apparently I have a Bacon Number of 4. I dated a girl who was an extra in
"Footloose" (2011 remake), with Dennis Quaid, who was in "The Right Stuff"
with Fred Ward, who was in "Tremors" with Mr. Bacon.

Neat.

~~~
acheron
I do too, through actually appearing on film, even.

Ok, videotape. I was in a videotaped school play with someone who according to
Oracle of Bacon has a Bacon number of 3. (Google doesn't work since he's
pretty obscure, Oracle of Bacon uses all of IMDB I guess.)

Now I just need to find out if I can get an Erdos number out of any of my
advisors.

------
evan2
Ahmadinejad is 5
[https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&q=Bacon+...](https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&q=Bacon+number+ahmadinejad&fp=1)

------
mcmire
Well, I guess this makes the Oracle of Bacon obsolete. Wonder how those guys
feel about this.

------
mey
Does this mean you can ask Google Now for Bacon numbers?

~~~
throwawaay
It worked for me.

------
gyaresu
There's a Gareth Bacon...

:(

