The art (I use the term carefully) of searching is hard to explain...it is a mix of 'technique' in search engine use combined with a feel for terms/phrases that SHOULD be in the results. I think an understanding of standard stereotyping (that is, what 'most' people say) is a great help.

as to question 2, the secret is to have 2-3 sites which do the work for you!...
I regularly check BlackStump for random mind jogglers, and their archives for data on almost everything.

but the most complete, well organized site I know for just information about information, is My Virtual Reference Desk Once you use this place a few times, you can find links to almost anything, including other reference sites!

A trick, not terribly well known, is to find a good site, like RefDesk above, and go to Google or AltaVista..(and maybe others) and, in the search box enter: "link:name of site" as in link:http://www.refdesk.com/toc.html ......this asks Google to list other sites which link to the chosen site, and thus finds many sites which have done the work FOR you.
Using that trick on RefDesk, I found http://library.pittstate.edu/ref/resources/virtual.html which has LOTS of reference sites....

these general tricks can be expanded to almost any subject matter, and, working backwards, be used to construct YOUR site to conform to easily searchable parameters....I think...*grin*

hope some of this is useful