Sorry, Google: NORAD gives gift of tracking Santa to Microsoft

5 hrs.

Rosa Golijan , NBC News

Google has supported the NORAD Santa Tracker since 2007, but in 2012 things are changing. This year, the?jolly man in red will be tracked using Microsoft products.?

There doesn't appear to be any bad blood between NORAD?? a "bi-national U.S./Canadian military organization responsible for aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning in the defense of North America"?? and Google. It simply looks like it was time for the two organizations to part ways.

"Google supported NTS from 2007-2011 and helped increase NTS program awareness across the globe; NORAD is grateful for the partnership and the resulting success," a NORAD spokesperson tells NBC News. "This year, NTS and Google mutually agreed to go in new directions, and we are excited to welcome a number of new contributors, to include Microsoft, Windows Azure, Bing, and iLink-systems, among others, to help us in our mission of tracking Santa. The ability to work with a diverse team of contributors is fundamental to the NTS mission, and we appreciate all of the continued support of all contributors."

I'll leave the jokes about those contributors and?Google Maps vs. Bing Maps vs. Apple Maps to you?? I'm trying to be nice for Santa.?

Want more tech news?or interesting?links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts,?or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/sorry-google-norad-gives-gift-tracking-santa-microsoft-1C7596676

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