One of the serach features that recently introduced by Hiyan Alshawi, a research scientist in Google is the wildcard search. You can use asterisk on query like [lifehack.org is *]. Sometimes it is useful to use that when you want to ask a question by using blank filling technique – like the example that Google gave [Glasgow is the * capital of Europe]. Very handy.
Sometimes one wants to use a search engine to find a very specific piece of information rather than to learn about a topic. If search engines were truly intelligent, you could just pose a question the same way you would ask a person. An alternative is to get the search engine to ‘fill in the blank.’ So instead of asking [who invented the parachute?], you can enter the query [the parachute was invented by *]. (The blank, or wildcard, search is marked by * – an asterisk.)…
Fill in the blanks – [Google Blog]
Does Google support wildcard searches? – [Google Help Center]
