Google is one of the few indispensable tools of the Internet . It's free, it's fast, and its ability to tell you almost anything you want to know make it seem omniscient. The information isn't guaranteed to be accurate, but the instant gratification of searching has made "googling" a commonly understood verb, and made Google rankings--the amount a search produces--an increasingly relevant barometer of cultural awareness. To make your googling even more efficient, we're going to introduce you to ten secret back-door tips that will help you maximize Google's performance to get the most out of your searches. Tip 1 - Or Instead of searching using multiple variations of a phrase, try adding the OR Boolean operator. Say you're trying to find Company X, but you can't remember if it's located in San Francisco or San Mateo. By adding OR, which can be abbreviated using the pipeline character |, you can search for both. For example: "Company X" San (Francisco | Mateo) This search will return results that contain Company X and either San Francisco or San Mateo, which can help cut down on trying a slew of Google searches with multiple variations of similar elements.