diff --git a/cli-lanterna/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/clilanterna/SearchModel.groovy b/cli-lanterna/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/clilanterna/SearchModel.groovy
index 9ec69b50..573a82ad 100644
--- a/cli-lanterna/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/clilanterna/SearchModel.groovy
+++ b/cli-lanterna/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/clilanterna/SearchModel.groovy
@@ -49,10 +49,7 @@ class SearchModel {
             searchEvent = new SearchEvent(searchHash : root, uuid : UUID.randomUUID(), oobInfohash : true, compressedResults : true)
             payload = root
         } else {
-            def replaced = query.toLowerCase().trim().replaceAll(SplitPattern.SPLIT_PATTERN, " ")
-            def terms = replaced.split(" ")
-            def nonEmpty = []
-            terms.each { if (it.length() > 0) nonEmpty << it }
+            def nonEmpty = SplitPattern.termify(query)
             payload = String.join(" ", nonEmpty).getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
             searchEvent = new SearchEvent(searchTerms : nonEmpty, uuid : UUID.randomUUID(), oobInfohash: true,
             searchComments : core.muOptions.searchComments, compressedResults : true)
diff --git a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPattern.groovy b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPattern.groovy
index 0908d045..606c903a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPattern.groovy
+++ b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPattern.groovy
@@ -3,5 +3,89 @@ package com.muwire.core
 class SplitPattern {
     
     public static final String SPLIT_PATTERN = "[\\*\\+\\-,\\.:;\\(\\)=_/\\\\\\!\\\"\\\'\\\$%\\|\\[\\]\\{\\}\\?]";
+ 
+    private static final Set<Character> SPLIT_CHARS = new HashSet<>()
+    static {
+        SPLIT_CHARS.with { 
+            add(' '.toCharacter())
+            add('*'.toCharacter())
+            add('+'.toCharacter())
+            add('-'.toCharacter())
+            add(','.toCharacter())
+            add('.'.toCharacter())
+            add(':'.toCharacter())
+            add(';'.toCharacter())
+            add('('.toCharacter())
+            add(')'.toCharacter())
+            add('='.toCharacter())
+            add('_'.toCharacter())
+            add('/'.toCharacter())
+            add('\\'.toCharacter())
+            add('!'.toCharacter())
+            add('\''.toCharacter())
+            add('$'.toCharacter())
+            add('%'.toCharacter())
+            add('|'.toCharacter())
+            add('['.toCharacter())
+            add(']'.toCharacter())
+            add('{'.toCharacter())
+            add('}'.toCharacter())
+            add('?'.toCharacter())
+        }
+    }
+    
+    public static String[] termify(final String source) {
+        String lowercase = source.toLowerCase().trim()
+        
+        def rv = []
+        int pos = 0
+        int quote = -1
+        
+        StringBuilder tmp = new StringBuilder()
+        while(pos < lowercase.length()) {
+            char c = lowercase.charAt(pos++)
+            if (quote < 0 && c == '"') {
+                quote = pos - 1
+                continue
+            }
+            if (quote >= 0) {
+                if (c == '"') {
+                    quote = -1
+                    if (tmp.length() != 0) {
+                        rv << tmp.toString()
+                        tmp = new StringBuilder()
+                    }
+                } else
+                    tmp.append(c)
+            } else if (SPLIT_CHARS.contains(c)) {
+                if (tmp.length() != 0) {
+                    rv << tmp.toString()
+                    tmp = new StringBuilder()
+                }
+            } else
+                tmp.append c
+        }
+        
+        // check if odd number of quotes and re-tokenize from last quote
+        if (quote >= 0) {
+            tmp = new StringBuilder()
+            pos = quote + 1
+            while(pos < lowercase.length()) {
+                char c = lowercase.charAt(pos++)
+                if (SPLIT_CHARS.contains(c)) {
+                    if (tmp.length() > 0) {
+                        rv << tmp.toString()
+                        tmp = new StringBuilder()
+                    }
+                } else
+                    tmp.append(c)
+            }
+        }
+        
+        if (tmp.length() > 0)
+            rv << tmp.toString()
+        
+        rv
+    }   
     
 }
diff --git a/core/src/test/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPatternTest.groovy b/core/src/test/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPatternTest.groovy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..10853dcd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/test/groovy/com/muwire/core/SplitPatternTest.groovy
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package com.muwire.core
+
+import org.junit.Test
+
+class SplitPatternTest {
+    
+    @Test
+    void testReplaceCharacters()  {
+        assert SplitPattern.termify("a_b.c") == ['a','b','c']
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    void testPhrase() {
+        assert SplitPattern.termify('"siamese cat"') == ['siamese cat']
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    void testInvalidPhrase() {
+        assert SplitPattern.termify('"siamese cat') == ['siamese', 'cat']
+    }
+    
+    @Test
+    void testManyPhrases() {
+        assert SplitPattern.termify('"siamese cat" any cat "persian cat"') ==
+            ['siamese cat','any','cat','persian cat']
+    }
+}
diff --git a/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy b/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
index efa3e771..0b932e1a 100644
--- a/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
+++ b/gui/griffon-app/controllers/com/muwire/gui/MainFrameController.groovy
@@ -107,11 +107,7 @@ class MainFrameController {
             searchEvent = new SearchEvent(searchHash : root, uuid : uuid, oobInfohash: true, compressedResults : true)
             payload = root
         } else {
-            // this can be improved a lot
-            def replaced = search.toLowerCase().trim().replaceAll(SplitPattern.SPLIT_PATTERN, " ")
-            def terms = replaced.split(" ")
-            def nonEmpty = []
-            terms.each { if (it.length() > 0) nonEmpty << it }
+            def nonEmpty = SplitPattern.termify(search)
             payload = String.join(" ",nonEmpty).getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
             searchEvent = new SearchEvent(searchTerms : nonEmpty, uuid : uuid, oobInfohash: true,
             searchComments : core.muOptions.searchComments, compressedResults : true)