While the video actually goes by the title of “Santa’s Google Search Tips Rap,” the chorus and subsequent Google blog post about the video uses the “Santa Search It!” chant; therefore, I’m going to as well. The description from the Google post explains the video as follows:

Sometimes music makes learning easier. With this in mind, a few of us Googlers decided to make a search tip rap music video to help you, and Saint Nick, navigate the holidays.

Essentially, the video is a web commercial showing the various search engine bells and whistles Google (the actual search engine, not the company) features. Let’s say you’re Santa Claus and your next delivery stop is for the Japan region. The video shows you how to search to get relevant, local information for your potential destination. There is, of course, a Google Android phone sighting, as well as a Chromebook appearance.

As indicated, a web commercial.

While the content is fine and good — nothing wrong with self-promotion — the presentation of said content is what wins the day; or perhaps loses it, depending on your disposition concerning rap parodies. See for yourself:

Daaaimn santa got SWAG
xX1ATS1Xx 12 minutes ago

And:

….:D go santa..!! go google…;)
\m/
madhav13vij 37 minutes ago

As well as:

A thousand times better than Apple’s Siri commersial
Apronos 45 minutes ago

But there are naysayers, too:

wtf
lulzland 13 minutes ago

That last one sums my thinking up pretty succinctly. This next video might help articulate my reaction as well:

Their latest offering comes just in time for the Christmas rush, and instead of concentrating on a particular device, Apple is showing off Siri, the digital personal assistant that operates via vocal commands. Whether it’s looking for old emails or checking the weather in your area, Siri’s capabilities are what’s being promoted here, not the device itself. Sure, you still need an Apple 4S to use Siri — no, I’m not talking about jailbroken iPhones, either — but Siri’s capabilities are what’s on display here, not the phone.

Considering the time of the year, one person in particular has a busy enough schedule to test even Siri’s capable organization skills. I’m talking about, of course, Santa Claus, who’s only a few short days away from embarking on a delivery mission that shames all other delivery services. When was the last time a UPS driver had to make almost 4 billion deliveries in one night? To help Saint Nick along the way is, of course, Apple’s voice-commanded assistant, reminding Santa of his responsibilities, while delivering messages from Mrs. Claus.

Now, if you’re the type who turns into an Ebenezer Scrooge during this time of year, the Siri/Santa commercial is not for you, but if you’re willing to let your heart grow three sizes and enjoy the season, you might find the commercial pretty endearing, even if you’re not an Apple fanboy.

Aside from the general economic malaise felt world-wide and, more immediately, the future awkwardness of their teenage years, kids now can’t even count on Santa Claus for a little dose of emotional rescue.

In addition to the general training that Mall Santas receive such as beard maintenance and preparing those gleeful dispositions for interactions with hopeful children, now Santas are receiving training to quickly assess the financial status of a child’s family in order to impose more realistic expectations of what the kids can expect to find under the Christmas Tree on December 25th.

Predictably, the Twitterscape had some sentimental paroxysms:

How do you even attempt to minimize the expectations of a young human to whom, aside from the possible exception of birthdays, Christmas Day is the most exciting day of the year. It’s one thing that Santas have to explain on the fly how they defy the space-time continuum by visiting each house on Christmas Eve or what they feed their reindeer; it’s another to economically profile someone who can’t really even conceive of money beyond the limits of an allowance. Awful. In my polluted and despondent imagination, I envision this kind of exchange:

Santa: So tell me, Phillip, what would you like for Christmas this year?

Phillip: I really want the new Zelda game, Skyward Sword. It looks awww-some!

Santa: Oh-ho-ho, well, that’s a pretty big request there!

Phillip: I know, I’ve been thinking about it everyday!

Santa: Hm, well, Phillip, I don’t know if my elves are going to be able to find that for you this year. What about this stick with a string tied on it?

Phillip: ….What?

Santa: Or how about this inner tube? It hasn’t been used too much.

/cue shattered dreams.

Godspeed, you cherub-faced saints.

It’s only a few weeks until Santa Claus comes to town, and for years the North American Aerospace Defense Command has been helping anxious kids and curious adults track jolly St. Nick as he delivers presents to all the good boys and girls of the world.

Today, the NORAD Tracks Santa site is finally up and running for 2011 – and it sports a countdown to when the tracking begins, which is of course December 24th.

NORAD has been helping families track the whereabouts of Santa for years, using a multi-faceted approach. First, they use the NORAD radar system called the “North Warning System.” This is what they use to find out the precise moment Santa leaves the North Pole.

Once he takes off, the use satellites “positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface [that] are equipped with infrared sensors, which enable them to detect heat.” If you haven’t guessed, Rudolph’s nose helps make this method particularly useful.

Next come the Santa cams, which are high-tech digital cameras that are positioned all over the world and only used once a year, for this precise purpose. Lastly, Canadian fighter jets intercept Santa as he is making his way south, and American NORAD pilots fly alongside Santa as he enters the U.S.

Of course, all of this is available for viewing using Google Earth. The actual 3D Santa tracking will be available on the NORAD Tracks Santa site starting Christmas Eve. You can also track Santa’s movements on the @NoradSanta Twitter account. Here’s an example of the types of updates you can expect there:

While you wait for the tracking to commence, the Santa Tracker site is offering the “Countdown Village,” which will reveal a new “fun activity” each day until the 24th. Today’s activity is a Christmas tree lights puzzle game.

Also, while you wait, check out this video from the 2010 Santa tracking experience:

Have you been naughty or nice so far this year? Let us know in the comments.

The tradition of tracking Santa began as an accident in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad for children to call Santa misprinted the phone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in Chief’s operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

They’ve been tracking the fat jolly guy ever since, and over the last couple years, they’ve begun working with Google by way of Google Maps and Google Earth, but Google has now announced that NORAD relies on Google Analytics as well. A post at the Google Analytics Blog says:

Initially, the Santa Tracking team at NORAD implemented Google Analytics last year because they simply wanted to see how many visitors came to the site. But they got a lot more out of it. We spoke with Major Stacia Reddish, NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager, after Christmas last year. "For us, 2007 was a benchmark because we didn’t have analytics data before. It will be really interesting and useful to compare last year’s statistics to this year’s." Last year, the website was featured in 6 languages and it literally got traffic from all over the world, which NORAD learned from Google Analytics. "In 2007 we had visitors from 212 countries and territories with the majority of traffic from the US, UK, and Canada," Major Reddish told us. "We logged almost 11 million visits!"

Major Reddish said that Google Analytics has been invaluable for planning and evolving the site. For instance, last year, the team made a goal to translate the site into at least one additional language for this year. But which language would be most helpful to visitors? Google Analytics reported that visitors from China spent twice as long on site as the average. So Chinese was chosen as the additional language option for 2008.

Last year’s visits to NORAD’s Santa Tracking site came from
almost every country on the planet, denoted by areas in green

Google is all about the holidays this year. They’ve been offering a ton of tips on different products, like Google Mobile (including video tips, which they’ve been tailoring specifically toward holiday situations). They’ve released holiday-themed templates for Google Docs, and of course the NORAD thing. Google’s never been one to shy away from the holidays, but it’s almost as if they’re looking to become tradition, like the Santa Claus Coke cans, Budweiser Clydesdales, and marathons of a Christmas Story.

Visitors to the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site will be able to access entertaining holiday games and activities that will change daily.

On December 24, Christmas Eve, NORAD will begin tracking Santa’s trip with live video feeds that begin at the following times:

3 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
4 a.m. Mountain Standard Time
5 a.m. Central Standard Time
6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time

Google software will broadcast live images from NORAD’s high-speed digital "Santa Cams," and Google Maps and Google Earth will follow Santa as he travels around the globe.

All of the information from the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and new this year Chinese.

The tradition of tracking Santa began as an accident in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. ad for children to call Santa misprinted the phone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in Chief’s operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for Santa making his way south from the North Pole.

This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that has carried on by NORAD, when it was formed in 1958. This Christmas marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa Claus.

Last year the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site received 10.6 million unique visitors from 212 countries and territories.

Microsoft added northpole@live.com last year to its Windows Live Messenger, which encouraged kids to connect directly to Santa. The program asks children what they want for Christmas and can respond to their requests.

The UK based, The Register reported that one of its readers discovered that a chat between Santa and his young nieces about eating pizza made Santa talk about oral sex. After turning down requests to eat pizza the bad Santa replied with, "You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else."

Microsoft admitted the problem and said, "Yesterday we received reports that the automated Santa Claus agent in Windows Live Messenger used inappropriate language. As soon as we were alerted we took steps to mitigate the issue, including removal of language from the agent’s automated script.

We were not completely satisfied with the result of these actions, and have decide to discontinue the automated Santa Claus agent."

Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said the company was not aware that the Santa code included foul language and that the company did not believe it to be an employee prank.

Microsoft will play the role of Santa this year, but don’t wait for Bill Gates to drop some cash down your chimney because he’s got a much better cause to spend it on than your mid-life crisis.

Bring your child to the computer, fire up Windows Live Messenger, and chat with Father Christmas at Northpole@live.com in an interactive session.

On Christmas Eve, the kids can ask Santa where he is through Live Messenger. Instead of saying he’s freezing his holiday buns off somewhere over Saskatchewan, he’ll tell your little darlings to check out his 10-20 on NORAD’s Santa tracker.

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth has a role on the Santa tracker, which will use the mapping technology seen in Windows Live Local to show where the sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer may be in the world.

So rather than spending a silent night with the legal system for yet another misdemeanor assault at the mall, gather the family around a toasty warm computer and go the Live Messenger route. A soccer-mom somewhere will be grateful without knowing why.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.