It doesn't appear to work if you are using google (even .com) in another language, confirmed with Spanish (Castilian).
append &hl=en to the URI :
https://www.google.com/search?q=Bacon+number+Simon+Pegg&...
Google's "Bacon number" search
11–20 of 88 posts
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#12Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#13I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers. I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.
Probably because there's no easily accessible data store like IMDB for famous mathematicians or computer scientists.
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#14I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers. I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.
Strange times we live in, when making an algorithm to calculate a random piece of trivia is no longer considered 'geeky' =)
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#15Well 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
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#16I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers. I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.
Probably because there's no easily accessible data store like IMDB for famous mathematicians or computer scientists.
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 :-).
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#17It took me a while to find someone with a Bacon number>2:
Prince
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#18I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers. I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.
Probably because there's no easily accessible data store like IMDB for famous mathematicians or computer scientists.
Microsoft's Academic search uses Erdos as a gimmick:
http://academic.research.microsoft.com/VisualExplorer
(The gimmick is that Erdos is the default for the co-author path visualization)
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#19I'm disappointed it doesn't work with Erdös numbers. I thought Google was supposed to be a geeky company.
Probably because there's no easily accessible data store like IMDB for famous mathematicians or computer scientists.
Re: Google's "Bacon number" search
#20Doesn't work with Erdös number, in case any of you were wondering.
Right. I tried finding out Erdös' Bacon number and nothing came up.
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.