'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. And that's because this year, Microsoft's Santa-tracking NORAD site is touch-friendly.
For the second straight year, Microsoft has partnered with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to monitor Santa's progress around the globe. Microsoft redid the site this year, however, to allow excited children armed with Surface tablets to spin an interactive Claymation-styled globe around (beginning Dec. 24) and pinpoint when the jolly old elf will arrive in their neighborhood.
The site, now live, offers several holiday-themed games (unlocked using an Advent calendar motif), holiday videos, and music. There's also "secret Santa" files that talk about the tracker's history, which began when an advertisement offering to help kids track Santas accidentally published the phone number of CONAD, NORAD's predecessor. The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole, according to NORAD.
Years later, Google provided the first "data" that established the Santa Tracker Web site.(For the record, NORAD says its combined radar and satellite tracking system, together with a network of "SantaCams" and U.S. and Canadian jet fighters, provide up-to-the-minute alerts on Santa's progress.) But two years ago, Google and NORAD parted ways, for unexplained reasons, and went with Microsoft instead.. Last year, Google's revamped Santa tracker offered an opportunity to chat with Santa, download an Android app, and track him via Google+.
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