I read The DaVinci Code a couple of
years ago. In fact, I listened to the first half of it as a book on
tape driving from Toronto to Ottawa and back. After 8 hours of
listening to the plot unfold I was hooked. I marched directly to my
neighbourhood Chapters, bought the book, and finished it in 3 days.

When I first heard about Tom Hanks doing the movie (which comes out
tomorrow) I shook my head and took solice in having read the book
first, so I wouldn’t be sucked in by the condensed,
sure-to-be-stripped-down on-screen version. I decided at that moment
that I absolutely wouldn’t see the movie.

And then came The DaVinci Code Quest on Google.

In their first large scale promotion of the sort, Google has teamed up with Columbia Tristar Marketing Group to promote the crap out of this film.  The only way I could figure out what the promotion was about was to add it to my Google Homepage.
Wouldn’t you know that the little content module doubles as my
’scorecard’ for the contest, so as soon as I added it I had challenges
to complete. Within about 5 minutes of messing around with secret codes
and symbols and puzzles, I was hooked on The DaVinci Code all over
again.

Now, 48 hours and 2 completed puzzles later, I’m afraid to say that
I’m considering going to see the movie. I won’t like Tom Hanks, that I
can still promise myself. I won’t go on opening weekend either. But
dammit, Google managed to wedge this sucker onto my homepage and I’m
back on the DaVinci wagon.