Internet search tools are not all alike.  For the best information about the particular web index or search engine you are using, look at the help screens provided by that search engine.   If you're looking for a nice introduction to web searching, try Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web.

Some general rules: (Nothing is true of every search engine)

• Some search engines look for websites that contain every word you choose, while others look for websites that contain all of the words.  For example, searching for: martin luther king  might find articles on Martin Lawrence, Luther Vandross, and Stephen King, as well as articles on Martin Luther King.  If you want all your words to appear together, put them in quotation marks.
• "martin luther king" will retrieve only websites containing the phrase Martin Luther King.
• If you type a capital letter, many search engines will look for that capital letter, and ignore the same word spelled in small letters.  Do not use capital letters unless the word you are searching is always spelled with a capital letter.  If you type small letters, most search engines will look for the small letter or the capital letter.
• If you want variable endings, you can use word stemming with *.   For example, librar* will retrieve library, libraries, librarians, etc.
• Many search engines support the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT and NEAR.   Usually, these words must be typed in all capital letters.
  • AND requires both words to be present.
  • OR requires either of the words to be present.
  • NOT eliminates a word you do not want.
  • NEAR requires that words be near each other, but not necessarily together. 

Searching for pictures:

Some search engines are particularly good for finding pictures:

• Google:  Enter your search term and click on the "images" button .
• HotBot: Enter your search in the box, click on "media type" from the menu at the side, and select "image" from the choices given.
• Lycos Image Gallery : Enter your search here to look for images on the Web.

Some additional pointers:

• John Makulowich's Awesome Lists highlight some excellent sites.
• Search engines change very rapidly.  Try new search engines occasionally-- the best one now probably will not always be the best.
• Website addresses frequently change, too.  If you try to return to a website and get a "page not found" message, go to a search engine and type in the name of that page.  Maybe it still exists, but at a different address.
• Not all websites are equal.  Here are some Tips for Evaluating Websites.