1) Making things faster: To get to a website, e.g. Google.com, a) press F6 b) type google and then hit Strg (Ctrl) plus the enter/return key.

2) Google basically looks for words on web pages. Google does not look for information. And Google does not look for the thing you want. e.g.: If you enter the word banana as your search, Google will NOT give you a banana, PERHAPS information on bananas, but REALLY just web pages on which the word banana appears.

3) You can write your query any way you like on Google, e.g. london, London, LONDON, or lOnDoN). The fastest way is to use lower case letters throughout.

4) Google (and other search engines) are “stupid”. You have to tell them as precisely as possible what you want. Using one-word queries is like walking up to a librarian and saying “London!”, if you want information on where the various minorities in London mostly live.

5) Search engines are not always the best and easiest way of finding information. Sometimes or often an encyclopedia is better. Go to de.wikipedia.org or en.wikipedia.org to find introductory information on a topic. Answers.com, which combines information from various dictionaries and encyclopedias, is also very useful. Example: This is what you get when you look for "immigration".

6) On Google the “I’m feeling lucky” ("Auf gut Glück") button takes you directly to the first hit. (Google has many more special features very few people know of.) Print out this sheet to help you with using Google more cleverly. PRINT IT OUT! IT WILL HELP YOU ENORMOUSLY! (At least look at it.)

7) Use quotes for phrases, or hyphens for two-word phrases., e.g. “to be or not to be” or house-arrest.

8) Country domains .de, .uk. .fr. ca limit your search to one country /language. To search for them with Google use the command site:.uk etc.

9) Directories organize websites in different categories, eg. dir.yahoo.com. You can click your way through to the information you need or use the search box. More directories.

10) There are many more search engines besides Google. Some are very specialized (on dogs, on the Tour de France, etc.) There are even search engines that help you to find specialised search engines. Searchenginecolossus.com is one of them. Here are many more search tools.

11) You can also limit your search in other ways when you use Google. site:.edu looks for websites of American schools and universities.

12) There are special search engines for school kids. KidsClick or Yahooligans for example. KidsClick lets you search for texts in easy English. Go to Advanced Search and adjust the reading level.

13) You can exclude words by putting a minus directly (!) in front of them, e.g.: -France, Tokio-Hotel -Bill. You can also use Google's Advanced Search to do this.

More information at searchengines.com