First of all, getting information on the internet isn’t a skill you can master in a snap. Like many things, practice doesn’t make perfect, but it helps a whole lot. Also, don’t be afraid of it. It’s doubtful you’ll harm anything. Probably worst case scenario, you’ll waste a few hours.
Search engines
For general queries, a regular search engine is often the best place start. Google, Bing, and Yahoo! are three of the major ones. For general information, go general. If your looking for a general guide to dicing vegetables, search “dicing vegetables”. If you are looking for something specific, add keywords to narrow your search. Looking for how to set up your Linksys wireless router? Try “linksys wireless router setup guide” instead of “linksys router”. Like it was said to start with, this is a bit of an art and you can improve it with time, and eventually become a search ninja.
Topical sites
If you can’t find it on a search engine, it may be helpful to turn to a site dealing with the topic in which your are looking for information. For instance, if you are looking for a recipe for braised chicken but can’t find any good ones with Google, you might try a cooking website, for example CookingLight.com.
Searching within sites like these can make sure you won’t get totally off topic results and may give you a community of people interested in the topic in which you can look around. Lots of sites have search boxes or a search page, but if the site you are looking at does not have one or you just are not getting satisfactory results, try using the advanced search on a search engine to peruse the site.
Forums and the like
If you can’t find it on a search engine or topical site, it may be helpful to go to a forum or question and answer site such as Super User or Yahoo! Answers and ask a question (it’s not a bad idea to search the site first to see if the question already exists). If you get your question answered, it may become doubly helpful, because you get your answer and someone with the same question might find it later, too.