diff --git a/src/common/kiwix/searcher.cpp b/src/common/kiwix/searcher.cpp
index 965986b61..4305841f4 100644
--- a/src/common/kiwix/searcher.cpp
+++ b/src/common/kiwix/searcher.cpp
@@ -23,13 +23,16 @@ namespace kiwix {
   }
   
   /* Search strings in the database */
-  void Searcher::search(const string &search, const unsigned int resultsCount) {
+  void Searcher::search(string search, const unsigned int resultsCount) {
     /* Reset the results */
     this->results.clear();
     this->resultOffset = this->results.begin();
     
     /* Create the enquire object */
     Xapian::Enquire enquire(this->readableDatabase);
+
+    /* lowercase the search pattern */
+    std::transform(search.begin(), search.end(), search.begin(), ::tolower);
     
     /* Create the query term vector */
     std::vector<std::string> queryTerms = split(removeAccents(search.c_str()), " #@%$0/\\_-*()[]{},;:");
diff --git a/src/common/kiwix/searcher.h b/src/common/kiwix/searcher.h
index 7a035d9f7..ae67165ad 100644
--- a/src/common/kiwix/searcher.h
+++ b/src/common/kiwix/searcher.h
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string>
+#include <algorithm>
+#include <iostream>
+#include <locale>
+#include <cctype>
 #include <vector>
 #include <xapian.h>
 #include <unaccent.h>
@@ -31,7 +35,7 @@ namespace kiwix {
     std::vector<Result> results;
     std::vector<Result>::iterator resultOffset;
     
-    void search(const string &search, const unsigned int resultsCount);
+    void search(string search, const unsigned int resultsCount);
     bool getNextResult(string &url, string &title, unsigned int &score);
     void closeDatabase();
     void reset();