Consider using specialized search tools for certain types of information. For example, if you're looking for a person or a place, use specialized people finders or maps and directions search sites. There are specialized search tools for virtually every topic or subject. See Choose the Best Search Engine for more tips on selecting the best search tool for your needs. Most people would either laugh, or ask questions to find out what the person was talking about.
Good queries are rich in keywords that can narrow the focus of a search.
Most search engines handle natural language queries quite well. In fact, sentence structure can provide valuable clues to the search engine that might be lost if you only enter a few search keywords. Most search engines are case-sensitive. This means you'll get much better results if you capitalize names, places, and other proper nouns. Obviously you shouldn't make dumb mistakes.