The easiest way to find what you want on the net, in most cases, is to be "vague". As weird as it sounds, it works. The Internet has no idea what you want, but it will make suggestions. If you do not know the exact address to a website, you must use a search engine. Try to to search on just the "key" words of a particular subject. For example, typing "cats dogs getting along" may be more productive than typing in "what is the best way to get a cat and dog to get along".

Search engines can be your friend or your enemy. The key is to find a search engine you like and learn how it works so that you can take full advantage of its features as well as understand what you're looking at. Below are a few search engines you could try.

Many people prefer www.google.com because it is very simple yet the most featured and powerful I have seen. Even Yahoo now utilizes the google.com search engine. Remember when searching, you do not include a www or a .com, .net .org..etc. Once you go to www.google.com you simply type for example "dog grooming". And literally thousands of web sites that have something in common with dog grooming will be at your fingertips. Another useful tip is to search similar pages. If you do a search and you see a link that may be very useful for what you were searching on, click on the links that say "similar". Most search engines have these links next to search results. They will take you to more search results that are very similar to site you requested "similar" for. It may also be a good idea to try and spell the word differently or use an alternative word that has the same meaning if you get weak or negative results. If you do know exactly what you're looking for, search for the site by title. (And sometimes you need to use the full title. For example, "people" is too general if you're actually looking for "People Magazine".) There are also certain letter syntaxes you can use:
  • Specify words that must appear in the results. Attach a + in front words that must appear in result documents. For example " apple +pie "
  • Use quotation marks around words that are part of a phrase. For example "great barrier reef"
  • Specify words that should not appear in the results. Attach a " - " in front of words that must not appear in result documents. For example " monty -python "
One "big picture" tip is that it's often better to search for categories, and not individual sites. This is especially helpful if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. For example, if you want a good recipe site, search for "Recipes" category (or categories). From there, you're bound to find a number of good sites, all on the same subject. Visiting categories is often easier (and more fruitful) than just trolling through a site's "search results" pages for individual sites.