Microsoft, Google compete to be top Santa searchers this Christmas

Johannesburg: Internet giants Microsoft and Google have vied to be top Santa tracker this Christmas.

Google has launched a website offering reindeer games, elf antics and updates on gift-giver Kris Kringle as children worldwide eagerly wait for Christmas.

In a blog post, self-titled Elf Creative Director Sandy Russell said that a team of Google engineers were working hard to track Santa's sleigh with the most advanced maps and holiday technology available.

According to news24, Google has made software to involve Android-powered devices.

Meanwhile, Microsoft teamed with North American Aerospace Defence (Norad) to create a Santa Tracker.

The technology that Microsoft created is powered by Norad's global radar system and technology such as Bing Maps and Windows software.

Colorado-based Norad is a combined US and Canadian command centre that works to 'defend North America' by watching the skies and seas for threats.

Norad started tracking Santa in 1955, after a US retail chain's newspaper ad inviting children to telephone Claus mistakenly listed a phone number reserved for emergency US air defence situations, the report added.