The below tips work for most major search engines.

**The more specific your search is, the more likely you
will find what you want. Don't be afraid to tell a search
engine exactly what you are looking for.

**For example, if you want information about Windows 98
bugs, search for "Windows 98 bugs," not "Windows."
Or even better, search for exactly what the problem is,
for example. "I can't install a USB device in Windows 98." 
You'll be surprised at how often this works.

**Sometimes, you want to make sure that a search engine
finds pages that have all the words you enter, not just
some of them. The + symbol lets you do this.

**For example, imagine you want to find pages that have
references to both lions and tigers on the same page.
You could search this way: +lions +tigers.   Only pages that
contain both words would appear in your results.

**Here are some other examples:
     +windows +98 +bugs would find pages that have all
three of the words on them. Helpful if you wanted to
narrow down a search to Windows 98 bugs, rather than
on Windows 98 in general.
     +star +trek +insurrection would get you pages about
Star Trek that also specifically mention "Insurrection,"
the title of a Star Trek film.

**The + symbol is especially helpful when you do a
search and then find yourself overwhelmed with
information.  Imagine that you wanted to reserve a
camping space in California's Yosemite National Park.
You might start out simply searching with the word
Yosemite.  If so, chances are, you'll probably get too
many off-target results. Instead, try searching for all
the words you want to appear, for example,
+Yosemite +camping +reservations

**Sometimes, you want a search engine to find pages
that have one word on them but not another word.
The - symbol lets you do this.

**For example, imagine you want information about lions
but don't want to be overwhelmed by pages relating to
tigers. You should search this way:  lions -tigers.  That tells
the search engine to find pages that mention "lions" and
then to remove any of them that also mention "tigers."

**Similarly, perhaps you are looking for information
specifically about Windows 95 but keep getting pages
about Windows 98 or Windows 3.1. You could eliminate
them with a search like this:  windows -98 -3.1

**Perhaps you are a fan of the original Star Trek series
but instead keep finding pages about Voyager, Deep Space
Nine or Star Trek: The Next Generation. Try a search like
this:  star trek -voyager -deep -space -nine -next -generation

**In general, the - symbol is helpful for focusing results
when you get too many that are unrelated to your topic.
Simply begin subtracting terms you know are not of
interest, and you should get better results.

**Now that you know how to add and subtract terms,
we can move on to multiplication. As in normal math,
multiplying terms through a "phrase search" can be a
much better way to get the answers you are looking for.

**For example, remember above when we wanted pages
about reserving a campsite in Yosemite? We entered all the
terms like this: +Yosemite +camping +reservations

**That brings back pages that have all those words on
them, but there's no guarantee that the words may
necessarily be near each other. You could get a page that
mentions Yosemite in the opening paragraph but then
later talks about getting camping reservations in the
Grand Canyon. All the words you added together would
appear on this page, but it still might not be what you are
looking for.

**Doing a phrase search avoids this problem. This is where
you tell a search engine to give you pages where the terms
appear in exactly the order you specify. You do this by
putting quotation marks around the phrase, like this:
"Yosemite camping reservations"

**Now, only pages that have all the words and in the exact
order shown above will be listed. The answers should be
much more on target than with simple addition.

**Likewise, remember this addition example?
+windows +98 +bugs.  As you can imagine, multiplying the
terms together within a phrase search would work better,
because that exact phrase probably appears on good pages
dealing with Windows 98 bugs. 
So try this: "windows 98 bugs".

**Remember the search for information about the latest
Star Trek movie? We could transform that into a phrase
search like this: " Star Trek Insurrection".
But the movie's title actually has a colon after the
word "trek," and many pages might also follow this format.
Thus, a better phrase search might be:
"Star Trek: Insurrection"
 

**Once you've mastered adding, subtracting and
multiplying, you can combine symbols to easily create
targeted searches.  For example, remember the person
who wanted pages only about Star Trek's original series?
We searched this way:
star trek -voyager -deep -space -nine -next -generation.  
A better search might use subtraction and multiplication:
"star trek" -voyager -"deep space nine" -"next generation"