How to search for a component?
I always start my search for components on digikey; they have a fairly good interface for narrowing down the search results (for example, you can specify the package and mounting type you need). If I can not find the exact part that I need on digikey, I would visit the manufacturer's websites of the parts that the narrowed down digikey search returns. 

This is the approach I have taken. It is not perfect and can be time consuming at times, but other times you can find a suitable part very quickly.