There is a reasonably complete guide to doing better searches using Google here, kindly donated by Daniel .
Note: Even though this reference, and Google itself, as well as most other search engines say to omit small words like "of", "a", etcetera, they can make a difference in your results, as you can tell in these examples:
eHow has "More Than 15,000 How-to Solutions" for almost any question you could ask. Pretty much everything--including "Diagnose a Brake Problem", "How to Play Five-Card Draw Poker", and "How to Make a Basic Omelette".