Internet Search

As the Internet has grown and expanded over the past several decades, it's become increasingly difficult to find specific pieces of information in the incredible sea of knowledge that the Internet has become. That's where a search engine comes in. There are several out there, most notably Google and Bing, and they all essentially do the same thing: they go out on the web and keep notes on where certain things are said, and determine the quality of a result based on how many people link to it. Then, when you want to find some piece of information, all you have to do is type in a few keywords, and the search engine will look through its notes (the "index") to find the information you're looking for. However, search engines like Google go way beyond this, and add several value-added services to make the experience faster, easier, and more efficient. Here's a short video demonstrating some of these features:

Getting more advanced

Now that you've got the basics down, it's time to explore how powerful Google and other search engines really are. Visiting Google's "Advanced Search" page shows you the plethora of available options to search for: http://www.google.com/advanced_search

If you're having trouble finding what you're looking for, try removing or adding words to your search query. Most of the time, the simpler the better. You can also change some words that are synonymous, make your search terms more broad/specific, etc. If you're looking for a specific phrase and not just individual words, you can also search for an exact phrase by surrounding it with quotation marks ("). Here's an excellent cheat sheet on effective Google searching from our friends at the Goodwill Community Foundation: