Here's a few quizzes I've created for you to test your Web Search skills and knowledge - have fun!

• Google Quiz: Test your Google Smarts with this Google Quiz.
• Search Engine Quiz: Okay, pop quiz, hotshot: how much do you know about search engines? Probably more than you think! Test your search engine smarts in the Search Engine Quiz.
• Are You A WebHead Quiz: Test your web searching skills with this fun quiz.
• Search Engine Optimization Quiz: Test your SEO knowledge with the Search Engine Optimization Quiz.
• Back to School Scavenger Hunt: September's Back to School Scavenger Hunt is all about Harry Potter and his own back to school adventures: Hogwarts, professors, school, books, and more. Test your Web search skills!
• Vacation Quiz: Vacation beach trips, camping trivia, state park trivia, European vacation trivia, and state fair trivia will all test your Web search skills.
• American History Quiz: History of Independence Day, American history and monuments, historic site identification,and Presidential trivia.
• Classic TV and Music Quiz: Classic TV shows, classic literature, and classical music scavenger hunt.
• Military Quiz: Veterans, the US Military, and military history scavenger hunt.

Use these resources to help you find the answers to my Web Search scavenger hunts.

• Pick the Best Search Engines:
  You have numerous search engine choices available to you - read this article for help on narrowing down your options.
• Top Ten Web Search Tricks: There are Web search techniques that I use every day in order to find what I'm looking for. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, I've put together just a few of the Web search tricks that I use to search more of the Web.
• Web Search for
  Beginners: Learn how to search more effectively, hone your searches more efficiently, and
  ultimately find what you're looking for with less time and effort.
• Daily Web Search Tips: Want to learn how to search more of the Web? Every day a new Web search tip will show you how to search the Web more efficiently.

If you've ever searched for an image, you've probably been at least a little frustrated with the quality of your results. I know I have! However, many search engines have rolled out some pretty useful advanced image search options. Let's look at three of them:

Google. Google has a great advanced image search option. Search for an image, click on the "Images" tab link, and you'll be taken to a page of image results. In the top left-hand corner, you'll see a link for "Options". Click on that, and you'll be able to specify what size of an image you're looking for right down to the last pixel, the type of image you're looking for, and the dominant colors you're looking for.

Yahoo. Yahoo's image search is also available from the tab link options. A search for "puppy" brings back tons of cute nubbins, with options suggested such as "cute puppy" (is there any other kind?) and "golden retriever puppy". Advanced image search is available by clicking on the "More Filters" link. Now, you can sort image results by size, color, type, and reuse permissions.

Bing. Bing, while relatively new, brings a pretty impressive advanced image search option to the table. Click on the "Images" tab, type in a query, and you'll see a page full of your results. The filters you want are to the left-hand side: size, layout, color, style, and people, an interesting search filter that winnows out images based on just face, head and shoulders, or more.

More on advanced image search

• The Best Image Search Engines on the Web
• Find an Image with Google Image Search
• Where to Find Free Images
• How to Find Public Domain Images on the Web

When does a disposable email address come in handy? Mostly, they're good for when you need to give an email address to a website and you'd like to avoid further emails (aka, spam). Basically, they are useful for protecting your privacy on the Web (for more on protecting yourself online, read How to Guard Your Web Privacy). Here are four sites that offer free, disposable email addresses:

• Guerilla Mail: Get a temporary random email address generated by GuerillaMail, or set up your own personalized email address (i.e, john@guerrillamailblock.com). The service expires after sixty minutes; you can read and reply to emails sent to this address at the GuerillaMail website.
• MyTrashMail: Create an account (no sign up required), forward emails to your private account, and protect yourself from spam emails.
• Mailinator: No registration, no sign-ups, just send your mail to a temporary account.
• 10 Minute Mail: For quick email needs, like a confirmation email so you can subscribe to something, this is perfect - only ten minutes worth of email time, but just right for those kind of situations.

More about email

• Top 18 Free Email Accounts
• The 26 most important rules of email etiquette
• How spammers get your email address

image courtesy sxc.hu

Nominate your favorite site in the 2013 About Web Search Readers' Choice Awards!

Ever try to get to a Web site and see one of those cryptic error messages; you know the ones that alert you that something has gone awry, but don't really give you any actionable information? I've written up seven of the most common Web server error messages that you'll encounter on the Web, along with ideas for getting around those messages and getting to the site you want. Here we go:

• 503 Service Unavailable
• Network Connection Refused
• 404 File Not Found Error
• Host Unavailable
• Unable to Locate Host
• 403 Forbidden Error
• 400 Bad File Request

More Web troubleshooting resources

• Is that site down for everyone, or just me?
• Why is Google not working?
• How do I avoid inappropriate sites in my Web searches?