It's hardly a week since the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) decided to end its 5-year-old partnership with Google Maps in favor of Bing to track the man in red this year. The decision has not deterred the search engine giant at all. In response, Google announced that its Maps engineers in Mountain View will develop a "new route algorithm" that lets you follow Santa's location with up-to-the-minute precision.

"While we've been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated Google Maps engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa's journey around the world on Christmas Eve.  You'll be able to follow him on Google Maps and Google Earth, and get his stats starting at 2:00 a.m. PST Christmas Eve at google.com/santatracker," Brian McClendon, Vice President of Google Maps and Google Earth, wrote in an official blog post.

A true exhibition of the spirit of the holidays, Google's Santa Tracker is filled with Christmas surprises for the kids and anyone else who enjoys keeping a tab on Saint Nick. It even offers a service where you can ask Santa to call a friend or family member. Here's how it looks:

"On Christmas Eve we'll be proudly showcasing a preview of Santa's dashboard -- the technology that powers his sleigh during his around-the-world journey. We've received this special preview from one of Santa's many developer elves, who are hard at work in the North Pole helping Santa prepare for his big day. Santa's dashboard - featuring the latest and greatest in Google Maps technology and sleigh engineering - will allow you to follow his progress around the world, and also learn a little about some of his stops along the way," the countdown website for Google Santa tracker said.

Google has also created a Chrome extension that enables you to simultaneously browse the web on your Chrome Browser and follow Santa along his route. This can be availed by installing the Santa Tracker Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store. "With some help from developer elves, we've built a few other tools to help you track Santa from wherever you may be. Add the new Chrome extension or download the Android app to keep up with Santa from your smartphone or tablet," wrote Eric Bidelman, senior developer programs engineer at Google Chrome.

While it looks like Santa is caught up in the war between Microsoft-Google, the kids are sure to like the technology enabled Christmas fun