How to be one of the finalists and win prizes

Hello everyone. Today we are at day # 24 of the Da Vinci Code webquests. I have received tons of emails regarding this and moreover a lot of people have been chipping in, providing the rules and everything else in the previous post's comments. I want to lay it out for all and how to become one of the elite finalist.

As you can see, today's quest would be an observation challenge. This might be very tricky or be very easy.
The previous three observation challenges all had three questions each and for the most part, the questions were not random. Google might change this for the final observation challenge.

As in the forums, for prizes and eligibility, I am going to break it down into three sections; US, UK and AUS, the countries whose residents are eligible to win the prizes.


UNITED STATES:
As you are all aware, this Contest begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time ("EDT") on April 17, 2006, and ends at 1:00 p.m. EDT on May 21, 2006 ("Contest Period"). To enter Phase 1 of the Contest, access the Contest Welcome Site located at: www.google.com/davincicode and follow the online instructions to select the United States and download The Da Vinci Code Quest On Google content module ("Module") to your Google Personalized Home Page. The Module requires Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 1.0 or higher and Macromedia Flash 8.

The Contest is divided into two (2) phases: Phase 1 and a Final Phase. (A third Phase consisting of an essay competition will be employed only in case of a tie in determining the grand prize winner, as described below).
In Phase 1, you will need to solve at 24 daily skill based, time-sensitive puzzles which need not be completed sequentially as outlined below. Only the first 10,000 participants who, having correctly solved all 24 Daily Puzzles during Phase 1, submit a Puzzle Completion Form (and who thereafter submit a Contest Entry Form) in accordance with these Rules before 1:00 p.m. EDT on May 11, 2006 will be deemed "Finalists." Only Finalists are eligible to advance to the Final Phase.
So in other words, you need to solve the puzzles and submit the contest entry form by 1:00PM Eastern Time tomorrow(May 11th). Finalists will be notified by email on or about May 15, 2006 and at time of receipt of their Finalist Prize which will be shipped by postal mail to be received by May 18, 2006.

Second Phase:The Final Phase of this Contest consists of a skill-based, time-sensitive series of five (5) puzzles which must be completed sequentially (collectively, "Final Puzzle Challenge"). The Final Puzzle Challenge is a skill-based, time-sensitive series of five puzzles which must be completed in sequence. The Final Puzzle Challenge will be made available to Finalists starting on or about 1:00 p.m. EDT on Friday May 19, 2006 and must be completed by 1:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 21, 2006 ("Final Puzzle Time Period").

For the full list of rules, check it out here
For the prizes list in the US, check it out here

UNITED KINGDOM
Unfortunately for our UK visitors, the suspense ends today, where there is no final phase of the competition. All your entries must be submitted by the midnight GMT on May 12th 2006. Another messed up part is that the winners are drawn randomly and under independent supervision, from all entrants who have correctly completed all 24 puzzles, and notified within 28 days of the closing date. Also, the winners may be required to participate in publicity connected with this promotion. However, the upside is that the prizes being given out are awesome.

You can check out the full list of other rules here
Check out the prizes in UK here

AUSTRALIA
For our Aussie visitors, the promotion commences on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 and closes 11.59pm, Thursday May 11th, 2006. The rules page doesn't mention whether the 11:59pm time mentioned is Eastern time, or GMT or local Aussie time. So make sure, you fill in as soon as possible.The judging will take place on Monday May 15th, 2006 at Sony Pictures offices, Sydney, 2000 and the winner(s) will be contacted by mail. There are a total number of 66 winners for Australia.

Check out the full list of rules here
Check out the list of prizes here

Good luck everyone.

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