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Tag: santa tracker

The Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.20, 2016, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

This year we will be running the same Google Earth Blog Santa tracker that we did last year. As we had last year, there are two versions, one using dynamic tours in Google Earth, which update by means of a network link and one that uses the Google Earth API. Instructions on how to use them can be found here.


Google Earth API based Santa Tracker


Google Earth Santa Tracker

 
 
We recommend the Google Earth API version if you have a compatible browser available, as it produces a better experience overall.

The Google Earth API is set to be shut down on January 11th, 2017 so this is in part a final farewell to it.

As has been the case for a number of years now, there are at least two other Santa Trackers run by Google and NORAD.

The post The Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.23, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We have produced two versions of our Santa Tracker.

Santa is expected to take off on December 24th at 10am UTC. If you are not sure what time that is in your time zone you can use Google’s count down clock instead.


Google Earth API based Santa Traker


Google Earth Santa Tracker

 
 
We recommend the Google Earth API version as it produces a better experience overall.

Google Earth API based version.
You will need a browser that is compatible with the Google Earth API. We have tested it on Firefox and believe that Safari should also work. Google Chrome no longer supports it. To begin, open the link above in a compatible browser. Firefox will ask you to ‘Activate Google Earth’ and then you have the option to ‘Allow’ or ‘Allow and Remember’. Select the latter option then refresh the page. It should now show you Santa’s Village in Google Earth. If Santa is already delivering presents then it will shortly fly you to Santa. Before and after Santa’s flight it will continue to circle Santa’s village.

At the bottom of the page you will see options to show Santa’s planned route, time markers to show roughly where he is expected to be at any given time (the figures show hours and minutes after the start of his journey), country borders and labels and a mini-map.

For a short video tutorial on the Google Earth API version see Frank’s video featured in this post.

Google Earth based version.
To use the Google Earth based version download the KML from the link above. The Google Earth based version uses a tour to follow Santa. However we were not able to figure out a way to automatically start or restart a tour from a network link. In addition, Google Earth struggles with very long tours. So we have decided to use a tour length of 10 minutes. To start the Tour look for ‘Play me’ and double click it. The network link with the tour in is set to automatically refresh ever 10 minutes but as we mention above it does not automatically restart the tour. You can at any point manually refresh the link an restart the tour yourself and it should show Santa’s latest position. Before and after Santa’s flight the tour will show Santa’s village instead of Santa.

You can also hide his planned route if you wish by deselecting it, and there is also a tour of Santa’s Village available.


Santa as seen from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In real life it will be close to midnight so the view will be quite different.

Credits:
Santa’s Village created by Sipho Mateke
Santa and reindeer in flight model used with kind permission from Google.
Santa model used in village after end of flight: by David James.

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Introducing the Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.21, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

This year, partly as a goodbye to the Google Earth API, which is expected to be shut down some time early next year we have decided to resurrect the Google Earth version of the Santa Tracker. We will be providing two different versions; one will run in the Google Earth API and the other within Google Earth. To view the Google Earth API version you will require a browser that still supports the Google Earth API, such as Firefox or Safari.

There are two other Santa Trackers this year, Google’s and NORAD’s. Google’s will be Google Maps based and NORAD’s will likely be based on the Cesium JavaScript library, as it was last year. Both Santa Trackers have countdowns. They differ by 2 hours, but last year NORAD’s countdown expired several hours before Santa actually took off. Our Santa Tracker will be as close as possible to Google’s Tracker, so you can take their count down as an indication as to when ours will start.

We will publish the necessary links and instructions to access them on Wednesday, but for now Frank has done an introductory video showing what it will look like:

We have decided not to accept user requests for extra Santa stops, but I am sure Santa has you on his list and you will not be missed out. His path shown in the tracker is only approximate.

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Introducing the Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.21, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

[ Update: find the Google Earth Blog Santa Traker here  ]

This year, partly as a goodbye to the Google Earth API, which is expected to be shut down some time early next year we have decided to resurrect the Google Earth version of the Santa Tracker. We will be providing two different versions; one will run in the Google Earth API and the other within Google Earth. To view the Google Earth API version you will require a browser that still supports the Google Earth API, such as Firefox or Safari.

There are two other Santa Trackers this year, Google’s and NORAD’s. Google’s will be Google Maps based and NORAD’s will likely be based on the Cesium JavaScript library, as it was last year. Both Santa Trackers have countdowns. They differ by 2 hours, but last year NORAD’s countdown expired several hours before Santa actually took off. Our Santa Tracker will be as close as possible to Google’s Tracker, so you can take their count down as an indication as to when ours will start.

We will publish the necessary links and instructions to access them on Wednesday, but for now Frank has done an introductory video showing what it will look like:

We have decided not to accept user requests for extra Santa stops, but I am sure Santa has you on his list and you will not be missed out. His path shown in the tracker is only approximate.

The post Introducing the Google Earth Blog Santa Tracker appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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The Google Earth API gets a temporary reprieve

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.07, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We recently received some good news. We heard from Google’s Earth team that the Google Earth API will not be shut down on December 12th, 2015 as previously announced but will be kept running a bit longer. We have been told it should remain active at least until the end of the year. This is great news for those of us who utilize it for various tasks. It doesn’t significantly affect most web applications that have depended on it, as they will eventually still have to seek alternative solutions.

Please note that we are talking about the Google Earth API, which is a way to display Google Earth in the browser and control it using JavaScript. Google Earth, both the desktop and mobile applications, are not going to be shut down at any point in the near future.

To celebrate the fact that the Google Earth API will still be active over Christmas we have decided to bring back the Google Earth version of Santa Tracker.

The original creators of the Google Earth Santa Tracker, Google and NORAD, parted ways a few years ago and created rival Santa Trackers that are web based and do not use either Google Earth or the Google Earth API. You can find their trackers here: Google Santa Tracker, NORAD Santa Tracker.

For more on the history of tracking Santa see this post from last year.

We will attempt to produce a Santa Tracker that will be available both via the Google Earth API and directly in Google Earth using network links.

The post The Google Earth API gets a temporary reprieve appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Santa Trackers now live

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.24, 2014, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

On December 3rd we told you about the two Santa trackers that are available this year, and pointed out that there was a 3 hour difference between the two count downs. NORAD’s count down expired first, but for the 4 hours following (as of this writing), the NORAD Santa tracking website has simply said ‘Santa is preparing for launch!’.

[Update: Soon after posting, the NORAD tracker came online. It is implemented with the Cesium Web GL Virtual Globe using Bing maps. In the absence of a replacement from Google for the Google Earth plugin, we can expect to see more and more websites using Cesium as an alternative.]

Google’s Santa tracker went live 2 hours before midnight of New Year’s Eve at the international date line. It shows Santa leaving the North Pole and following the approximate path of the antimeridien South towards his first destination, which is Provideniya, Russia. He will arrive there just after 9pm Christmas Eve local time. Santa’s gift deliveries must be estimated, as it shows Santa delivering thousands of gifts whilst still flying over the polar ice cap.

As far as we know, there is no way to view either tracker in Google Earth, which is a pity, as that is the ideal platform for it. Google Earth is largely responsible for the popularity that the Santa Tracker currently enjoys.

Google's Santa tracker shortly after launch
Google’s Santa tracker shortly after launch.

The post Santa Trackers now live appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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Santa Tracker count downs begin

by Timothy Whitehead on Dec.03, 2014, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

According to NORAD, the tradition of tracking Santa began as follows:

The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for children to call Santa. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” 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. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.”

Soon after Google acquired Keyhole in 2004, prior to it being renamed and released as Google Earth, one of the Google engineers released a KML file showing Santa’s route around the earth and it immediately became very popular. Before long, Google and NORAD were cooperating on the Santa tracking mission, a partnership that continued until Christmas 2009, after which NORAD decided to start using alternative mapping products. At this point, Google decided to do their own tracking, so for the last few years there have been two Santa trackers available. Google’s Santa Tracker and NORAD’s Santa Traker.

Both sites have games and other activities to keep you entertained every day until Christmas Eve, when the actual tracking begins in earnest. Their estimates for when Santa will first be spotted differ by 3 hours. I am guessing this is because NORAD has radar stations near the North Pole and will be able to track him sooner.

Google Santa Tracker
Google Santa Tracker.

Google Santa Tracker
NORAD Santa Tracker.

For more on the Santa Tracker, its history, and the technology behind it, be sure to check out some of our posts from years past.

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The technology behind Google’s “Santa Tracker”

by Mickey Mellen on Jul.01, 2014, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Back in 1955, CONAD (handing it off to NORAD a few years later) began “tracking” Santa on Christmas Eve night for children to call in and get his current location. Starting in 2004, that information has been available in Google Earth and it is a stunningly popular feature.

The technology behind Google’s latest Christmas Eve tracking service is quite impressive. As explained by an article on ZDNet:

By 2013, the Santa Tracker user experience grew into a full-fledged online, snow-kissed winter village with interactive HTML5 games, keystroke animations, a soundtrack, and of course, an elaborate Google Map that can even be integrated with Chromecast for viewing on larger screens.

As part of Google I/O, there was a session titled “How 20% engineers built Santa Tracker” that explained it quite a lot. The full video of that session can be seen here:

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The countdown begins for Google’s annual Santa tracker

by Mickey Mellen on Dec.03, 2013, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

Google’s annual “Santa Tracker” site is live, with new games and features being added each day from now until Christmas.  When Christmas comes, as they’ve done in years past, Google will help track Santa’s journey around the world.

google-santa-tracker

As we saw last year, there is also the (now separate) NORAD Tracks Santa site which is being powered by Microsoft.  The result on Christmas Eve is that Santa may appear to be in two different places at once if the maps aren’t in sync, but there are some good explanations for that.  Danny Sullivan did a great job of breaking down the differences in tracking software last year, including gems like this:

It might be that NORAD is somehow projecting Santa’s future location in an effort to help parents trying to usher their kids off to sleep. Personally, I long wished for this type of time-shifting, myself. Or perhaps Santa is moving so fast this year that NORAD’s systems are distorting the location. In the past, he was always spotted passing over particular places around midnight, by NORAD. Alternatively, maybe Google’s systems are lagging behind.

Regardless, it gives us two great sites to send the kids to look at and play with as the big day approaches.

As for Google’s technology, I expect we’ll see a pretty clever use of Google Maps and/or Google Earth on Christmas Eve.  Their about page promises the “latest and greatest in Google Maps technology and sleigh engineering“.  No matter how it turns out, it’ll be a fun day for all involved.  Check it out for yourself at google.com/santatracker.

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