Say you were after information on an actor from the X-Files, Forbes Angus. Say you sought the homepage of Bruce Willis, a plumber in Arkansas. Usually this doesn't matter, but it is smart to be aware of the process. The asterisk covers all possible extensions. Not supported by Excite, Google or Infoseek Reverse questions Search engines look for pieces of text that match your query.
Web pages are more likely to contain answers than questions - so search for the answer.
Try shortening the URL to the next subheading. Keep doing so until you get to the point that works. Then browse from there to see if you can track down the file that you want. Google has most of the web cached. Sometimes the reason a page appears in the results is because it is one very long page of text, briefly mentioning hundreds of subjects.