The Santa Tracker has become a great holiday tradition and Christmas celebration, especially online through NORAD. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) runs www.noradsanta.org that joint United States and Canadian military outfit, based at Cheyenne Mountain, Colo.

The “NORAD Tracks Santa” project purports to follow Santa Claus when he leaves the North Pole to deliver the gifts to the children around the world. This program begins on December 1 every year with Countdown Village Website.

Google and NORAD once again team up for this Santa Tracking event. This year, Google released a series of updates to the Street View feature in the Google Maps. The company’s mascot – Pegman hangs on the top of the zoom slider. Users can drag the Pegman to any street on the map and it will show the preview of the selected location.

A smaller map in the corner allows user viewing a substitute image of the surrounding area and split screen exhibits the preview turn. The Pegman will wear a Santa hat on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

NORAD uses numerous high-tech systems for tracking Santa including fighter jets, Santa Cams, satellites, radar, etc. Starting December 24, 2010 at 2:00 AM EST, Google will help the people around the globe to track Santa Claus through its advanced geo-location technology, Google Maps for computer or mobile phone, or Google Earth plug-in. The cell phone users can track Santa Claus by searching for “Santa” on Google Maps or by visiting m.noradsanta.org in their mobile Web browser.

Google provides tracking updates in real-time search results through updates from news, social networks and micro-blogs. You can see the updates at YouTube channel – noradtracksanta, at Twitter – @noradsanta and at Facebook – www.facebook.com/noradsanta.

In addition, the search giant is also setting up a Website that allows children requesting a personal call from Santa. This service is operated by Varitalk Holdings and sponsored by Google.

Now, only 30 minutes left when NORAD Website starts tracking the Santa. Let us wait and see how Google and NORAD perform. We will keep you posted, stay tuned!!

History of “NORAD Tracks Santa”

Only a few people remember that “NORAD Tracks Santa” is following the tradition of a New York Sun editorial article published in September, 1897. It was titled “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” and written to address a small letter from 8-year old Virginia O’Hanlon.

Keyhole, an official partner of NORAD in Santa Tracking, was acquired by Google in 2004. The Keyhole Earth Viewer was used to track Santa that year. More than 25,000 persons tracked Santa on December 25, 2004. Needless to say, it brought mayhem on some servers.

The Santa-tracking efforts dramatically improved over the next two years. The Keyhole turned into Google Earth in 2005 and audience become much larger. Approximately 250,000 people tracked Santa on Google Earth on the Christmas Eve of 2005.

Google acquired SketchUp – 3D modeling software in 2006 that enabled the search giant to include Santa with its sleigh and North Pole. In addition, Google displayed NORAD information in Google Earth and incorporated the tracking feeds directly from NORAD’s headquarters.

Seeking the continuous improvements, NORAD had made the Google its official Santa Tracking Technology Partner and hosted www.noradsanta.org. The search giant added Google Maps Tracker and integrated YouTube videos in the journey as well. Several millions of users tracked Santa in 2007 and the Google servers worked continuously without any issue.