Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Podrías buscar la información en el catálogo? - Could you look for the information in the catalog?

Both are used to ask for things, but podrías is the conditional form, meaning 'could you'. We use it to make polite requests, making the question sound a bit softer and more courteous than the present tense puedes ('can you').

Why is buscar in its infinitive form instead of being conjugated?

When you have two verbs working together in a phrase like this, only the first one gets conjugated. Since we already conjugated the first verb into podrías, the second verb buscar must stay in its unconjugated infinitive form.

Why isn't there a word for 'for' after buscar?

The Spanish verb buscar already means 'to look for' or 'to search for' all by itself. You don't need to add an extra word like por or para. Saying buscar por is a very common mistake for English speakers, so just remember that the 'for' is built right into the verb!

How would I change this sentence if I were speaking to a boss or someone older?

This sentence uses podrías, which is the informal tú form. To make it formal, you would drop the 's' to use the usted form: ¿Podría buscar la información en el catálogo?