No search mechanism on a site? Or an incomplete result? Never fear, Google is here
How many times have you been fto a site where you knew there was info you wanted, but there was no search mechanism--or it was anemic? Did you know you can leverage Google to search a site directly? In the google search criteria, simply add "site:somedomain.com" before the search keyword(s), as in:
site:challies.com providence
This search will show where on the challies.com site there is mention of the word, providence. Of course, the site and search text I'm using is immaterial (and I'm not saying that this site had no search feature, nor that its result was incomplete. I just picked a random example.)
What matters is that you may find this very useful if you're ever stumped knowing that something is on a site but you can't find it.
(A separate problem is where you know it WAS on the site but it is no longer. I'll soon offer another tip on how to almost magically sniff out such "removed" content from the ether.)
As for site searching, if you have the google toolbar, you can make things even easier. While it's not enabled by default, you can enable a "search site" button to appear right next to default "search web" button. Use the "options" button in the toolbar and choose the "more" tab, then check "search site" under "extra search buttons". Then you just type in your desired word (or highlight it on the page) and click that site search button. Voila!