diff --git a/includes/SearchEngine.php b/includes/SearchEngine.php
index 2e83974c8fa..f802aebaf86 100644
--- a/includes/SearchEngine.php
+++ b/includes/SearchEngine.php
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ class SearchEngine {
 	 * @access private
 	 */
 	function getNearMatch( $term ) {
+		# Eliminate Blanks at start
+		$term = ereg_replace('[[:blank:]]*', '', $term);
+
 		# Exact match? No need to look further.
 		$title = Title::newFromText( $term );
 		if ( $title->getNamespace() == NS_SPECIAL || 0 != $title->getArticleID() ) {
@@ -75,10 +78,18 @@ class SearchEngine {
 		}
 
 		# Entering an IP address goes to the contributions page
-		if ( preg_match( '/^\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}$/', $term ) ) {
+		if ( preg_match( '/^(user:)?\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}$/', strtolower($term) ) ) {
 			$title = Title::makeTitle( NS_SPECIAL, "Contributions/" . $term );
 			return $title;
 		}
+
+		# Entering a user goes to the user page whether it's there or not
+		if ( preg_match( '/^user:/', strtolower($term) ) ) {
+                        if (User::idFromName($term)) {
+			  $title = Title::newFromURL( $term );
+			  return $title;
+                        }
+		}
 		
 		return NULL;
 	}