diff --git a/code/features-search/query-parser/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryTokenizer.java b/code/features-search/query-parser/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryTokenizer.java
index 8ca580db..992e3ee5 100644
--- a/code/features-search/query-parser/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryTokenizer.java
+++ b/code/features-search/query-parser/src/main/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryTokenizer.java
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 public class QueryTokenizer {
-    private static final Pattern noisePattern = Pattern.compile("[,]");
+    private static final Pattern noisePattern = Pattern.compile("[,\\s]");
 
     public List<Token> tokenizeQuery(String rawQuery) {
         List<Token> tokens = new ArrayList<>();
diff --git a/code/features-search/query-parser/src/test/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryParserTest.java b/code/features-search/query-parser/src/test/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryParserTest.java
index d2a2ee6e..8bc19545 100644
--- a/code/features-search/query-parser/src/test/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryParserTest.java
+++ b/code/features-search/query-parser/src/test/java/nu/marginalia/query_parser/QueryParserTest.java
@@ -18,6 +18,29 @@ class QueryParserTest {
         parser = new QueryParser();
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testTabHandling() {
+        var query = " lorem\tipsum\ndolor  sit";
+        var ret = parser.parse(query);
+        assertEquals(4, ret.size());
+
+        var lorem = ret.get(0);
+        assertEquals("lorem", lorem.str);
+        assertEquals("lorem", lorem.displayStr);
+
+        var ipsum = ret.get(1);
+        assertEquals("ipsum", ipsum.str);
+        assertEquals("ipsum", ipsum.displayStr);
+
+        var dolor = ret.get(2);
+        assertEquals("dolor", dolor.str);
+        assertEquals("dolor", dolor.displayStr);
+
+        var sit = ret.get(3);
+        assertEquals("sit", sit.str);
+        assertEquals("sit", sit.displayStr);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testAdviceString() {
         var ret = parser.parse("alcibiades (plato) \"my query\" -cars");