The best way to find anything quickly is with a "search engine". Search engines scan the Internet for web pages and index them all in a massive database. You can then connect to the database and perform keyword searches.
At the time of writing (June 1996) the best search engine by far is AltaVista. It seems to have indexed the entire web (it has indexed 30 million web pages) and is incredibly fast. Try it!
Here is a list of popular search engines:
Another way to find information on the Internet is with a web directory. Whereas a search engine accepts keywords and takes you directly to pages containing those keywords, a directory contains an index of pages organized hierarchically by category.
At the time of writing, the best directory is Yahoo.
If you're in a hurry to find something specific, use a search engine. If you want to explore a particular topic, use a directory.
Another way of finding information is to roam about the
net following links until you find what you want. This is usually
grossly inefficient, not only because roaming usually doesn't work
very well, but because it's so easy to get distracted on the
way :-). Roaming works best when you have already found a web
that touches on the topic you're interested in. By following the
"interesting links" page of that web, you can find other webs
on the same and related topics, and from there find your way
to a web that covers the topic you're really interested in.
Webmaster: ross@ross.net