6 degrees of Kevin Bacon comes to Google

GlobalPost

Ahh, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. A flashback to a simpler time when hair was long, fanny packs were awesome and Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe.

Google is bringing back the popular 90's game that connects anyone working in Hollywood to the actor Kevin Bacon in six steps, reports The Next Web.

The search engine started a new feature called the "bacon number" where you type in the name of any actor followed by the phrase 'bacon number', (example: angelina jolie bacon number) and Google will tell you how many 'steps' they are away from Kevin Bacon.

“We’re always trying to provide users with the best answer for what they’re looking for and as quickly as possible,”  Yossi Matias, an engineering director and head of Google’s Israel Engineering Center, told Time magazine.

Matias told Time that the idea behind the bacon number goes a little deeper than just a fascination with the actor.

“The notion of [the Bacon Number] is based on a pretty popular term among mathematicians and scientists, called the Erdös Number,” says Matias, referencing the theory that all mathematicians have some connection with the mathematician Paul Erdös. “People are quite fascinated by these small-world phenomena.”

The game was started by three college buddies, Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelliin, in the late 1990's who promoted the game until it fell into obscurity, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Bacon himself Tweeted his own Bacon number. (Zero, of course) Followed shortly by "I guess in my heart of hearts I kinda knew I was a ZERO."

And yes, it works with most of Hollywood. Even Mr. T has a 'Bacon number' of 2. (Mr. T was in Spy Hard with Marcia Gay Harden who was in Mystic River with Kevin Bacon!)

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