Are you a young child and need to make sure Santa is making his way to your house?

Maybe you’re a physicist trying to do some analysis on how Santa gets around the world in just one night while dragging every imaginable gift along with him (without losing any of that weight)?

Either way, once again, you can track Santa’s journey from the comfort of your own home.

Google allows you to track him and his sleigh through Google Earth Santa Tracker.

Norad is also doing their traditional tracking, but this year they seem to have teamed up with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

Hope Santa brings everyone what they want. And Merry Christmas to all of you readers.

In an attempt to one-up their competitor’s Google Earth, Microsoft has added 3D functionality to their Local Live Search. Unlike Google Earth, which is a separate application, Microsoft’s 3D Virtual Earth 3D uses an in-browser ActiveX control. The buildings in Virtual Earth 3D look a bit nicer, being textured and all, but it’s measurably slower than Google Earth. The interface is also not as nice as Google’s, but I guess it’s still a work in progress.

I’ve tested out a few areas, but had pretty lame results. Here is a comparison of my town, Tampa, FL:

Downtown Tampa, FL in Local Live 3D

Downtown Tampa, FL in Google Earth

If you visit the cities listed on the sidebar at Virtual Earth 3D, though, you get much better results. Those include:

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Dallas
• Denver
• Detroit
• Fort Worth
• Houston
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Seattle