This is an internet and technology competition without geographic boundaries (ok, except for the one international award that specifically recognizes a non-US-based company.) No companies are restricted from consideration. Certain awards have specified criteria (i.e. best unfunded start-up or best new start-up launched in 2009) but, otherwise, all companies and products are eligible for consideration based on their business accomplishments made during calendar 2009. Companies may be nominated for multiple award categories, and companies may win multiple awards. There are no fees to nominate companies for consideration.

Everyone is invited to nominate companies for award consideration. For each award category, each person is invited to submit one company for consideration per IP address per day.  Nominations across all 18 categories do not need to be submitted in a single ballot, but each confirmed submission will be counted as final per user.

The Crunchies Committee will select the top five nominated companies per award category based on the quantity, quality and breadth of submissions received. Each finalist company will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony.

Everyone is invited to vote for their favorite Crunchies winners. One ballot per IP address per day will be counted in the final vote. The Crunchies Committee reserves the right to discard any and all votes that it reasonably determines to be fraudulent or submitted by bots or other computer-generated voting applications. There are no fees to vote.

The final award winners will be determined based on the popular votes received through website voting and the Crunchies Committee. The award winners will be announced live at the Awards Ceremony to be held Friday, January 8, 2010 in San Francisco.