The center of the Bacon Number universe. Image: Screenshot/Webmonkey

Google has added a new Easter Egg to its web search — the Bacon Number.

Disappointingly not related to actual bacon, the Bacon Number in this case refers to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, specifically the number of degrees of separation a person has from actor Kevin Bacon.

Google Search now understands the Bacon Number. Type, for example, “Bacon Number Obama” to learn that President Obama has a Bacon number of 2 (connected by Tom Hanks). Google can even handle the reflexive “Bacon Number Kevin Bacon.” Of course not every search returns a Bacon Number, not even some you would think should — try to find the Bacon Number of nerd favorite Joss Whedon and Google comes up empty — but for more generally popular celebrities Google now has yet another bit of trivia stored.

It’s not quite as nerdtastic as other Google Easter Eggs like “Do a Barrel Roll, but the Bacon Number search shows Google does still have a sense of humor at times.

Homepage photo: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff/Flickr

“I’m Feeling Puzzled” will take you to Google’s puzzle a day project. Image: Screenshot/Webmonkey.

Google Instant Search eliminates not just the need for, but the opportunity to even press the venerable “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. With Instant Search, results appear the minute you start typing, without pressing any buttons. That might help explain why Google appears to be phasing out “I’m Feeling Lucky” with some whimsical Easter Eggs instead.

Head to the Google homepage and hover your mouse over “I’m Feeling Lucky” and you’ll see it spin like a slot machine, landing on things like “I’m Feeling Stellar,” which searches for various nebula and other stellar objects, or “I’m Feeling Wonderful,” which takes you to random pages on the World Wonders Project.

Alex Chitu over at Google Operating System points out that there are currently eight different options that the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button will morph into, which is at least somewhat in keeping with the random spirit of the original.