- If you got an error message and you need do fix it, search for the exact text of the error message in quotes
- If you run some sort of GNU/Linux and you need to find out how to do something, include the word "linux" in the query
- If you are looking for a list of some sort of thing, and you already know a few items which are so well-known that they should be on any such list, include those items in your search; e.g. if you are looking for scripting languages, and you know that Perl and Python are popular scripting languages, do ""scripting languages" perl python"
- Check wikipedia
- If you run some sort of GNU/Linux, and you think you have encountered a bug, but there is no error message, enter some words that will likely be found in anyone's description of the problem, and add the word "bug" and also the name of your GNU/Linux distribution, for instance "<problem description words> bug debian"