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Google Loses Santa To Bing
New submitter Sebolains writes "Unlike previous years, NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) has decided to use Bing maps to track Santa's journey as he goes around the world delivering presents. Starting Christmas eve, one will be able to go to the official NORAD Santa tracking site and use Bing maps to see where Santa is delivering presents at that time. In previous years, NORAD has always gone for Google maps to track Saint Nick. The reason for this switch were not disclosed, but since nearly 25 million people are expected to use this tool come this Christmas, this will definitely benefit Bing in the ongoing competition for online map applications."
And that's why no presents, he got lost.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I've never used them for navigation but Bing maps(furnished by Nokia I believe) have much better aeriel photos. I can see my house from 6 angles on Bing, which is mostly blocked by a large tree on Google. That being said I still use Google maps for pretty much everything else just because I'm used to it.
I'm not exactly sure why, but when it comes to mapping some non-existent being's non-existent journey, Bing seems somehow so much more appropriate than Google.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake
It has made Santa very mad that he has to specify the pictures he is looking for... naughty or nice...
NORAD, using Microsoft products... Well, at least we know how the world ends.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
The correct question is "Who's Bing?", and the answer is that he starred in White Christmas with Danny (effin) Kaye, so using Bing is entirely appropriate.
that or Microsoft offered it for free or is paying for it just to get the publicity.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
"But since nearly 25 million people are expected to use this tool come this Christmas, this will definitely benefit Bing in the ongoing competition for online map applications."
Yeah? Prove it.
Well payed, Microsoft. Well payed..
I would like to see the actual decision making process behind this....
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/g-639.pdf
and any and all emails from any Microsoft employee associated to this decision.
How on earth does NORAD not have its own satellite imagery that they could use?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Somebody woke up with a reindeer head in their bed. On a more serious note, WTF is wrong with people that they go to this much trouble to lie to children?
I read on some gold plates that the Flying Spaghetti Monster uses Google Maps for His flying.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Also, it is not like Google is the small kid that needs to be protected against Microsoft.
Whatever the reason for the switch, in a nutshell we can simply say: Google dropped the ball.
morcego
I think a better title for this story would be "Apparently, NORAD owns 'Santa' and has now sold him to Microsoft"
their data may be ok but their software that interfaces it is horribly out of date, it would have been acceptable during the era of streets and trips '97
with google maps i can put a search string (such as a business name town and state; or even something more generic like Gas town state) in as a destination address and it will automatically retrieve the address if it has it, if there are multiple matches it pops up a (did you mean) dialog then plugs them in for you.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
they have a crappy knockoff of everything Google puts out
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Santa is a completely fictitious figure who does not go flying around on Christmas Eve! And NORAD is not tracking a real thing! And anyone, can make up a "track Santa" map application! WTF? If having a "track Santa" map is important to Google, I'm sure they can create just that. This story makes no sense at all.
NORAD has been doing this tracking Santa gimmick annually since the 50's, well before just anyone could make a map app, when a published wrong number caused kids to call them instead of a department store. The base commander who answered the first calls had a sense of humor, liked children, and thought fast enough on his feet to give a "tracking report". It gives people serving in uniform a chance to talk to citizens they're protecting while on duty on a holiday and vice-versa. I suppose you would have yelled at them to stop wasting your time with nonsense?
They actually do still have phone banks on the 24th, and the public can call up and speak to real volunteers. It is certainly not "all done with".
Click on that link anyway. It includes a search for "airport."
Right, that's zoomed in - you could see the shape of it also on the image I linked. But you couldn't see any sign that shape was the airport - if you were a traveller you would not know where to zoom in, when I travel I just zoom out from the city and search for "Airport" all the time. If you zoom out on your link you'll find that none of the search results are at that location although at least they are in the same city!
I was actually pretty astounded that this error existed in Google, as this kind of vague contextual search that should use past searches by lots of people to guess what the user is really looking for, should be right up Google's alley. You'd think that searching on an airport code would be better, but this morning a search for "DIA" took me to somewhere in France... it works better now but the main result for DIA is not the airport.
Interestingly at iOS6 launch , that "airport" search pulled up the wrong airport in Denver. But after about a month (I did submit a correction) DIA was properly the featured airport for any kind of wide search. That is why I say that competition is good for both map apps, because it is bringing to light flaws that have been in Google a long time and should not have been, and those will probably get corrected faster now than they were.
It's weird because there's a "Denver Airport" place marker on Google Maps, but I guess it doesn't count for some reason.
Why could that possibly be? That makes no sense to me. It really makes you question the advantage of Google having all these great placemarks (which they do) if they are not used all the time by map search.
To me the interesting thing about comparison results from Google Maps to Apple, is that Apple while being sometimes too cagey with results ("found nothing"), Google is often too permissive with results ("I found nothing but perhaps you'll enjoy this random set of locations that have nothing to do with your search whatsoever"). No-one ever questioned that behavior of Google much before but I think they may start if other mapping apps get better at returning the most relevant point of interest.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Also, it is not like Google is the small kid that needs to be protected against Microsoft.
Whatever the reason for the switch, in a nutshell we can simply say: Google dropped the ball.
My guess is MS made an offer ($$) that Santa (NORAD) couldn't refuse.
Be seeing you...
My guess is MS made an offer ($$) that Santa (NORAD) couldn't refuse.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But he's just a ho (ho ho).
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
NORAD asked for a "Bing Crosby Xmas", and somebody fscked-up the order.
Table-ized A.I.
You are, apparently, unaware that they don't do this any more.
You are, apparently, unaware that you have three options when you don't know what you are talking about.
A) Don't talk.
B) Talk anyways, but make it clear that you are guessing and making assumptions.
C) Talk anyways, but act like you know what you are talking about.
You blew right through both A and B and went right to C, the one that proves that you care more about looking like you know what you are talking about, than actually knowing what you are talking about.
"His name was James Damore."
Easy - it's not Google.
As in: Bing Is Not Google.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife