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NORAD, the military wing in charge of defending North America from maritime and aerospace attacks, seems to have a lot of spare time on its hands. Since 1955 NORAD has tracked Santa Claus as he travels around the world delivering presents -- and since 2007, Google has also been part of the project, integrating NORAD's data with Google Maps and Earth.
Basically, once Santa gets on the move -- around 2am EST on December 24 -- you can follow his movements, either in 2D or 3D, on your computer or your phone, and with Google Maps or Google Earth; just search for 'santa'. For the truly festive, there's even a NORAD Twitter account, which will presumably tweet Santa's current location in real time!
Below there's a video of what the experience looked like last year. I imagine it will look much the same this year, unless Santa has updated his GPS navigation hardware. Also, who knew that Rudolf's nose was quite so radiant?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RapJevrCKag&feature=player_embedded
Tags: christmas, festive, google, google earth, google maps, GoogleEarth, GoogleMaps, norad, norad santa tracker, NoradSantaTracker
via: Google Blog