Great blog post at the official Google blog.

The hard news:

NORAD has partnered with Google to use technology including Google Maps, Google Earth, iGoogle and YouTube to track Santa...

The countdown begins December 1st on NORAD's website (Norad Tracks Santa), where families can find a new kid-friendly game or activity every day until December 24th.

But the cool part is the blogger -- Carrie Farrell is the granddaughter of Col. Harry Shoup, who, as commander-in-chief of NORAD in 1955, took a call to Santa from a wrong number printed in a Sears ad, and gamely asked his staff to check the radar for a sleigh.

The photo is of Harry and Carrie now.

Read it all :Tracking Santa, then and now.