The site: operator and the * - Google's supplemental index?

[SEOLair]

What is actually happening when you append an * after the site: advanced search operator. I've heard it has to do with Google's supplemental index? It seems from first glance it could also have something to do with parameters in the URLs.

Here's an example: site:carters.com vs site:carters.com/*

Any help is appreciated!

-George

[futureX]

The star at the end does not show supplemental index afaik, if anyone can shed light on what it is actually doing I'd like to know too.

iirc to view what's in the supplemental index use the following syntax:

site:carters.com *** -view

That seems to show supplemental results for me.