This year marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) tracking Santa, and yes, there’s an official Santa-tracking site. It’s clearly a work in progress: As of this writing there are several “Check back soon” links, text isn’t flowing into the white space properly (at least not on Firefox), the Santa Puzzle game link leads nowhere, and there are missing images. I hope the NORAD elves pull it together soon — the big day is just three weeks away. At least they have an MP3 of the United States Air Force Academy Band performing “Santa Wants A Tuba For Christmas.”

Beyond getting the basics right, a whole lot more could be happening here — and should, considering it’s NORAD’s golden Santa anniversary. Hey, as long as you’re going to do it, do it right. For example, why not develop a fun little desktop app that looks like an active radar screen, maybe with the map on the screen able to be adjusted to the user’s location. A countdown of shopping days wouldn’t hurt, either. (Oh, crap, that reminds me …)

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2005 at 10:17 am and is filed under Internet Stuff.