If your computing experience harks back to the days before Windows, you'll know about wildcards. When you're searching for filenames from a command prompt, you can use "?" to stand for one particular characters and an asterisk "*" to stand for any number of charaters. So if you're searching for Win* for example, it'll find Windows, Window, Winning, Winter and many more.

But here's something that you maybe didn't know (and nor did I until recently). Google accepts the wildcard asterisk symbol too, so long as you include a search phrase in quotes. For example, search for "the trouble with *" and you'll get matches about loads of things which appear to have some sort of trouble.

The results aren't always quite as you'd expect, as Google is clearly doing some extra processing behind the scenes. But it's a great way to help find what you're looking for. For example, if you want to look for all the best Windows freeware, just search for "best free * for windows" and you'll get loads of useful leads.  Read More