Re holding and playing with a pick, watch and read this. Note paragraph 8. "You can also place the side of your hand (or palm) on the guitar, bridge saddles or strings. I encourage you to experiment with all of them. The idea here is to find a good place for your arm to rest and from which your picking hand can pivot."

Continues with more on posture and technique here. 

Re your second question re the search engine, not effectively any more. The new forum is even more broken than the one it superseded.