diff --git a/include/functions_search.inc.php b/include/functions_search.inc.php
index 7ed85862c..73409ce1f 100644
--- a/include/functions_search.inc.php
+++ b/include/functions_search.inc.php
@@ -1705,6 +1705,8 @@ function split_allwords($raw_allwords)
 {
   $words = null;
 
+  $raw_allwords = trim($raw_allwords);
+
   if (!preg_match('/^\s*$/', $raw_allwords))
   {
     $drop_char_match   = array(';','&','(',')','<','>','`','\'','"','|',',','@','?','%','.','[',']','{','}',':','\\','/','=','\'','!','*');