Fravia.. looking at your new searching site has inspired me to actually write down how I have searched for something. I do not think I am a great searcher, the trade is just too easy to be elitist! But I had already chewed much of the material found on your site (or is there an 'experienced' section?).
So, I assume this little 'lesson' may be beneficial to those new at searching.

I'm sure you would never search for my particular target, but I was looking for a place to download mp3s from a little known heavy metal/techno band MDFMK. I did what you suggested which was to write down what I am looking for and time myself a maximum amount of 15 minutes. I completed this search in 9:54 minutes!

Searching for mp3s is nowadays one of the most common searches. Normally, I don't even consider this kind of retrieval a real "search": I just logon to [Napster], and look for the songs, which *normally* are always there. But, this time I had no luck: out of over 200,000 songs, and 1 terabyte of other songs.. I could not find any MDFMK songs at all! :(

Well I have now found napster, which I recommend! You get there around a terabyte (or 1000GBs) of songs all the time: no more broken links, no more slow downloads, and no more busy, disorganized FTP sites... Anyway, before Napster I looked for music either on IRC, or Homemade FTPs.
I DO NOT RECCOMEND GETTING SONGS THROUGH THESE TWO PATHS!! They can be used only as a last resort.
On IRC, simply go into one of the huge mp3 channels (cablemp3) and use @locator <song/band/ect.>, then follow the bots instructions. For the ftps, I recommend you use CuteFTP or another FTP program, search for the song/band at one of those mp3 FTP depositories (such as mp3.box.sk, mp3search.lycos.com, www.audiogalaxy.com, www.oth.net, and I suppose http://ftpsearch.lycos.com) from there, it's a guessing game normally, to see which FTPs are not busy, have ratios, have been taken down, need you to survive a barrage of banner clicking... its a hell out there! So, go there as a LAST resort!! Ok.. this is how I started out..

Naspter's search for MDFMK gave me... nothing!! Now I had to actually work for something, this is when I started the clock :)

I searched for 'MDFMK mp3 download' at google.com. Good ole google returned a whopping 14 results
You may want to quickly scan with your eyes the following block.

MP3.com - QUANK ... download this at home.. Reached 2nd place Industrial Dance on mp3... ... MP3.com Entire Site Genres Only Regional Only Artists Only Songs Only... artists.mp3s.com/artists/30/quank.html - Cached - 52k - GoogleScout MP3.com - Nackt Schwein ... MP3.com Entire Site Genres Only Regional Only Artists Only Songs Only... ...Fi: Play (high-speed connections) Download (4.3 MB) Email Song Save to... artists.mp3s.com/artists/50/nackt_schwein.html - Cached - 31k - GoogleScout MP3.com - Ubiquitus ... MP3.com Entire Site Genres Only Regional Only Artists Only Songs Only... ...Fi: Play (high-speed connections) Download (4.2 MB) Email Song Save to... artists.mp3s.com/artists/19/dias_irae_the_days_of_anger.html - Cached - 31k - GoogleScout MP3.com - Rogue Blitzkrieg ... MP3.com Entire Site Genres Only Regional Only Artists Only Songs Only... ...Fi: Play (high-speed connections) Download (2.9 MB) Song Lyrics &... artists.mp3s.com/artists/51/blitzkrieg.html - Cached - 28k - GoogleScout LisztIRC: Undernet ...Exclusive: Connect to a Random Channel Download the mIRC Client | Join... ...are 11,1BORG15,1. 0,01The BEST MP3 Servers and the BEST MP3's!... www.liszt.com/chat/networks/undernet_num.html - Cached - 122k - GoogleScout LisztIRC: Undernet ...Exclusive: Connect to a Random Channel Download the mIRC Client | Join... ...sex, we just made it better! #0-day-mp3 1 #0-day-warez 2... www.liszt.com/chat/networks/undernet_alph.html - Cached - 122k - GoogleScout LisztIRC: Undernet ...Exclusive: Connect to a Random Channel Download the mIRC Client | Join... ...#0!!!!!!girlswhosuckcock 2 #0!!!!19/bi/female 1 #0-day-mp3 1 #10-17 1... www.liszt.com/chat/networks/undernet_alph_filtered.html - Cached - 106k - GoogleScout MobiusB - Music Links ...for preview as well as MP3's for download. Take me there... ...electronica sites and artists Site Info URL MP3.com Vast MP3... www.mobiusb.com/music_links.html - Cached - 30k - GoogleScout Bookmarks for Jason ...Heavy Metal Music Radio in Netshow MP3 and Real Audio TheDJ : What's... ...Tracker - Archived Updates ZDNet: Mac Download Operating Systems Mac OS... montana.iucc.iupui.edu/bookmarks.html - Cached - 128k - GoogleScout auf nimmerwierdersehen ...a(nother) nine inch nails website, download nin-related goodies and check... ...hundreds of zzt games and utils up for download. - crankgod's production... voighdt.trap.cx/links.html - Cached - 7k - GoogleScout | m | d | f | m | k | ...clique' with kmfdm, i highly doubt mdfmk will do any better,FAILURES!!!... ...(good job sascha) thru the years. + mdfmk.net gets me horny. thanks for... matrix.netos.com/~mdfmk/gb/pstpst/081799.html - Cached - 54k - GoogleScout Wicked Land - News Archive ...release. You can download 4 all new Reach MP3z at Mp3.com. Just... ...hardcore CD? Buy Reach's new CD at Mp3.com. Highly recommended. 10.12.99... www.wickedland.com/archive.html - Cached - 109k - GoogleScout Northwest Underground ... http://come.to/fire99 and download songs at http://www.mp3 ...From The Box March 1, 1999 KMFDM - MDFMK Sascha Konietzko and Tim Skold... www.stormloader.com/nwu/oldnews.html - Cached - 9k - GoogleScout Re: Genre busting (was Re: Re: Re: babble in pews) ...dark bands go? Skinny Puppy now = Download. they've had 3 full cd's and... ...cEVIN kEY is genious. KMFDM now = MDFMK. ingenious acronym? no. but it's... www.actwin.com/OtR/month.9903/msg00757.html - Cached - 5k - GoogleScout

I totally disregarded all of these.
MP3.com has nothing
Undernet is IRC, and that's the LAST thing to do
MobiusB - Music Links <-- said MP3.com
Bookmarks for Jason <-- No personal pages, they always have nothing
uf nimmerwierdersehen <-- My first instinct was 'english please?' then the caption said garbage about NIN, and a personal site isn't going to have those two on it
| m | d | f | m | k | <-- I recognized this, this is from the official mdfmk site, they sure as hell aren't going to have their mp3's! :)
Wicked Land - News Archive <-- more MP3.com BS
Northwest Underground <-- 'download songs' caught my eye, and I clicked on this, but alas, it's been taken down, the cached web page won't help me coz I want the mp3s.
Re: Genre busting (was Re: Re: Re: babble in pews) <-- this is another one I clicked on, the message board caught my eye, and It could have a link to the songs, but it didn't and the listing was over.

I thought about what I had read on fravia's site, and I came up with ..USENET!! A fast deja.com search led me to alt.music.mdfmk. Now .. if the band has it's own alt.music.place, let's leave deja to its crap advertisements and let's go directly to the beef. So I loaded up netscape to peruse there. And I came across a pretty little thread...

Subject: download mdfmk mp3's Date: 18 Feb 2000 03:11:11 GMT From: tsingle999@aol.com (TSingle999) Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Newsgroups: alt.music.mdfmk

where can i download these? i am a newbie to this list. thanx for your help. shiva
------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------
Subject: Re: download mdfmk mp3's
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 13:12:54 GMT
From: Brett Banditelli <benat2@tamaqua.com>
Organization: bCandid - Powering the world's discussions -
http://bCandid.com
Newsgroups: alt.music.mdfmk
References: 1

goto mdfmkmp3.cjb.net, its a link to the album at freedrivespace, ull prolly need an accoumt, i think rainmkr123 or someone originally posted it there

(hey! a link!! I'm there, but I need the shared folder password. I continue with the thread..)
------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------
Subject: Re: download mdfmk mp3's
Date: 19 Feb 2000 20:04:48 GMT
From: tsingle999@aol.com (TSingle999) Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.music.mdfmk
References: 1

what is the shared files password?

(Yeah! What is it? :) I keep reading..)
------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------
Subject: Re: download mdfmk mp3's
Date: 19 Feb 2000 20:13:17 GMT
From: tsingle999@aol.com (TSingle999)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.music.mdfmk
References: 1

found it mdfmk
------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------
(Duh! Why didn't I think of that? :)

So my final results for the MDFMK album is

http://mp3.freediskspace.com/Folders/649292/ with the shared folder password of 'mdfmk'
And the stopped clock is at 5:06, so this search took a total 9:54.

This is my recommendation for finding a song in MP3 form: