Use Google, SPAUG's favorite Search Engine.
For help using Google, refer to Nancy Blachman's GoogleGuide. Nancy has given presentations for SPAUG, and her guide is a really good way to find out more about Google's capabilities.
Also, the Google Help - Features has instructions and examples of many types of special searches.
For a tutorial on search engines, try Pandia Search Central on how to search the Web, a guide to search engines and directories, latest news on search engines, etc. Another place to keep up-to-date on search engines is searchenginewatch.com. And of course, Nancy Blachman's GoogleGuide.
In general:
Put quotation marks around an item to request an exact match (e.g., "Grant Tracker").
Use a + to include an item, or a - to exclude it (e.g., Who +"rock band").
Use asterisks to search with wildcards (e.g., "*bert" yields "dilbert" and "albert")
Some of the links listed below are really front ends that allow the searching of multiple engines with one entry (Metasearches). Each Search Engine contacted by a Metasearch may have some unique search requirements for narrowing a search, therefore, a "front-end-search" of multiple engines allows only for the most general of searches. For starters, try Ask Jeeves, below.
For useful information about the different types of search engines (see below), and instructions for using search engines, check out Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com/facts/).