santa tracker

Tracking Santa’s journey in Google Earth

December 23, 2011

Starting around 2am EST tonight, Santa’s journey will begin and NORAD will once again be tracking his every move!
His journey will be tracked using a variety of methods including satellites, radar and fighter jets.

You can view the main Santa tracker here

. Unfortunately, it only runs in the Google Earth plugin in your browser (not in the desktop version of Google Earth), and you can’t make it full screen so you are stuck with a smaller image. It would also be nice if you could view it on your tablet version of Google Earth. But, read on for other ways to follow his journey throughout the day.
Here’s a “behind the scenes” video from Google’s Bruno Bowden on the origins of the NORAD Santa Tracker:

There are a lot of great ways to follow him on his journey, thanks to the folks at NORAD and some help from Google:
• Watch his progress on Google Maps. Visit noradsanta.org to see a map of his location and his next scheduled stop.
• Watch him fly by using the Google Earth Plug-in. Visit the “Track in Google Earth“

page to watch Santa fly by using the Google Earth Plug-in. The past few years I fired up this page on my netbook, placed it up on the mantle, and we kept a close eye on Santa all day long.
• New this year; follow Santa with OnStar. If you have a GM car with OnStar, you’ll be able to push the OnStar button and get an update on Santa’s location (more info).
• Follow his progress on your phone. Search for [santa] in Google Maps for Mobile, or visit m.noradsanta.org from your phone to track his progress while you’re on the go.
• Follow him on other services, such as his YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook Page.
Having NORAD track Santa has been a tradition for decades, and using Google Earth/Maps to track him has quickly become a popular tradition of its own. Millions of people track Santa using these fun new methods, with more joining in every year. Have fun!

NORAD Tracks Santa goes live for 2011

December 1, 2011

As they’ve done for the past few years, the incredibly popular NORAD Santa site is now live for 2011. Each year the site tracks Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve, and the site is now live in preparation for the holiday.

As always, the tracker itself won’t be live until December 24. However, they have a variety of new games on the site each day in the “Countdown Village” that are fun to play with your kids; for example, the game today is a puzzle to help you string lights up on a virtual Christmas tree.
NORAD (and its predecessor, CONAD) have been tracking Santa every year since 1955. The addition of tools such as Google Earth and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have only served to help increase the spread the of this fun tradition. To keep up with the latest happenings from the North Pole, you can join their Facebook Page (with a remarkable 716,000 fans) or follow them on twitter at @NoradSanta.

My girls will certainly be following along this year, as they had a great time watching him last year. How about you? Did you follow along last year with your kids? Looking forward to doing it again?

Track Santa’s journey in Google Earth

December 24, 2010

By the time you read this, Santa will have already begun his journey around the world, starting around 2:00am EST today. His journey will be tracked using a variety of methods including satellites, radar and fighter jets.
You can view the main Santa tracker here, but read on for other ways to follow his journey throughout the day.
If you missed the chance to watch his journey last year, here is a highlight reel that Google has put together:

There are a lot of great ways to follow him on his journey, thanks to the folks at NORAD and some help from Google:
Watch his progress on Google Maps. Visit noradsanta.org to see a map of his location and his next scheduled stop.
• Watch him fly by using the Google Earth Plug-in. Visit the “Track in Google Earth“

page to watch Santa fly by using the Google Earth Plug-in. Last year, I fired up this page on my netbook, placed it up on the mantle, and we kept a close eye on Santa all day long.
• Follow his progress on your phone. Search for [santa] in Google Maps for Mobile, or visit m.noradsanta.org from your phone to track his progress while you’re on the go.
• Follow him on other services, such as his YouTube channel, Twitter account and Facebook Page.

As another fun bonus, Google has just added a Santa hat to “Pegman” (the Street View character) in Google Maps. He doesn’t change the functionality of Google Maps at all, but just makes things a bit more festive!
Also, Google has built a variety of custom online holiday cards for you to send to your family and friends. You can see them all at googlemapsholidays.appspot.com. It uses a fun combination of winter images and Google Maps to create a fun card for you to send.

Santa Claus is coming to Google Earth

December 2, 2010

It’s that time of year again, and NORAD is once again preparing their very popular “Santa Tracker” to follow Santa around the world on Christmas Eve. The new 2010 site has just gone live in preparation for the holiday.
Last year’s tracker was astoundingly popular, with over 13 million people from 231 countries visiting the NoradSanta.org site, and I’d expect that number to keep growing every year.

Of course, the actual tracker doesn’t go live until December 24. In the meantime, they introduce new games every day in “Santa’s Village“. They tend to be rather simple games (yesterday was tic-tac-toe), but the music and environment add some fun if you play them with your kids.
NORAD (and its predecessor, CONAD) have been tracking Santa every year since 1955. The addition of tools such as Google Earth and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have only served to help increase the spread the of this fun tradition. To keep up with the latest happenings from the North Pole, you can join their Facebook Page (with a remarkable 386,000 fans) or follow them on twitter at @NoradSanta.
My girls will certainly be following along this year, as they had a great time watching him last year. How about you? Did you follow along last year with your kids? Looking forward to doing it again?

(via Lat Long Blog)

The Santa tracker 2009 is now live!

December 24, 2009

It’s Christmas Eve! Once again, NORAD and Google have teamed up to provide the Santa tracker, to watch the big man as he flies around the world.
The Santa Tracker is vastly improved this year. Rather than downloading a KML file that updates every few minutes, it’s all done using the Google Earth Plug-in. You can watch him fly in real-time from city to city and make his deliveries. There’s even a counter at the bottom to show how many gifts have been delivered so far.
Go here to view the Santa Tracker, or you can visit m.noradsanta.org to track him on your mobile phone (details). You can also view this Google Map to see his current location and where he’s been so far, or follow the @NoradSanta Twitter account to get updates on his location.

For more info, you can check out the main Norad Santa site, or read some of the history of the NORAD tracker in story that cnet wrote a few days ago.