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The search engine isn't very good at answering search queries posed as questions. For the best search results, try to imagine the title of the page you are looking for, and search for that. It takes some experimentation to find the right keywords.
Word-order sometimes matters, and so do the exact words chosen, so sometimes reordering the words or using a synonym can give different results.
The best approach is usually starting from one word, and then adding additional terms as to refine the search, rather than starting from a complicated query and trying to simplify it.
Usually you will land at queries that may look like these:
You can also try to use a different search profile to shape the results.
The "Modern" profile will only show pages that claim to follow the HTML5 standard, which is as old as 2014. The design itself may still be old, but it's at least an inkling human hands has touched the document in recent years.
The "Old" option will only show pages that claim to follow old HTML standards.
The "Blogspam" profile will include domains the search engine has just discovered, and has insufficient quality information about.
Since the search engine specializes in older(-looking) webpages, it's typically fairly difficult to find information on current events and bleeding edge technology, especially in web design.
A wealth of information seems available on historical people, television and video games that are a few decades old, and past events, recipes and hobbies. There are also a decent number of personal web pages and blogs, even if this is not an exhaustive directory of the blogosphere by any means.
If you press the little arrows icon next to a search result (this one: 🔀), you will get a list of sites that are similar to that site. This is helpful for exploring blogs and personal websites.
This is an experimental feature.
Reach me at kontakt@marginalia.nu