Searching the Internet is a fundamental and crucial skill for modern life and valuable to both you and your employer.

If you are just typing in words into your favorite search engine, then you are merely scratching the surface of the search engines' power. Much more focused information is available once you learn a few basic approaches to searching.

To quickly learn better searching, buy "Powerful Internet Searching" - a Quick reference Guide

Some Simple searching tips.

Use the power of the search engine.
Don't scroll endlessly through page after page of weak search results, continue to change your search conditions and look at only the first page or two.

Think synonyms.
Before you begin searching, think of every synonym you can regarding your search. Priortize them and then search. Buy a good synonym dictionary, or use Thesaurus.com

When you hit a wall, switch contexts.
Spend only a few minutes searching for your words. When nothing comes up, take a completely different approach.

Some ideas for context switches:

Think of who uses what you are looking for and search for the people or companies who are users. Once you find a user, search their web page, or send them an email.
Search for people or organizations who supply the raw materials for what you need.
Search for government agencies who might have something to do with what you want.