photo credit: flickr
Google won't see Santa Claus; the North American Aerospace Defense Command is switching to Microsoft's Bing maps for its annual NORAD Tracks Santa project.
NORAD had used Google Maps since 2007 for the interactive experience that lets smartphone users spot and pinpoint Santa in the command's app.
NORAD said its Track Santa app has been downloaded nearly 922,000 times through Apple's iTunes, almost 558,000 times on Google Play for Android users and about 2,500 times by Windows Phone 8 users.
NORAD began tracking Santa from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1955 when a small child called the base in hopes of speaking with Santa Claus.
The base phone number was printed by mistake in a Sears newspaper ad and children placing calls to Santa were actually connected to the base, where base personnel played along.
Google is announcing that it will continue on with its own Santa Tracker regardless, developing a "new route algorithm" that lets you follow the Claus’s location with up-to-the-minute precision.
Beginning at 2AM PT on Christmas Eve, you’ll be able to track Santa on both Google Earth and Google Maps — the latter gives you an easy-to-parse dashboard view — as well as on the Santa Tracker website. If you’re going to be on the road or at work, though, you might want to check into the accompanying Chrome extension and Android app, and set up some alerts for Google Maps updates on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. If this sounds like overkill to you, that’s fine. They’re your presents.
