Bing Is Now The Official NORAD Santa Tracker, But Google Will Still Track Santa This Christmas Eve

Every year for as long as my daughter has known what a smartphone is she carries my phone around all of Christmas Eve checking where Santa is in the world constantly using the NORAD Santa tracker. For the last five years, NORAD has had a contract with Google making Google the official Santa tracking destination. However, that has changed this year.

If you want the official NORAD Santa tracking, you'll have to go to Microsoft Bing. Over on Bing, you will be able to keep track of Santa on Christmas Eve and I would expect it to be pretty much the same style and layout that Google had for the last five years. Just because NORAD signed up with Bing as the official Santa tracking destination doesn't mean Google won't be keeping tabs on Santa.

Google has announced that its Google Maps engineers have built a new route algorithm to chart Santa's journey around the world Christmas Eve. Google says that you'll be able to follow Santa using Google Maps and Google Earth starting at 2 AM Pacific standard Time on Christmas Eve. Google even built a few new tools to make tracking Santa easier.

Google has a new Chrome extension and a new Android app is available to help you track Santa on the go from a smartphone or tablets. You'll also be able to get updates on exactly where Santa is on Google +, Facebook, and Twitter.