diff --git a/pkg/search/expr.go b/pkg/search/expr.go
index 90fe6f7a3..54b73e0b1 100644
--- a/pkg/search/expr.go
+++ b/pkg/search/expr.go
@@ -32,8 +32,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 var (
-	tagExpr   = regexp.MustCompile(`^tag:(\w+)$`)
-	titleExpr = regexp.MustCompile(`^title:(\S+)$`) // TODO: proper expr parser supporting quoting
+	tagExpr   = regexp.MustCompile(`^tag:(.+)$`)
+	titleExpr = regexp.MustCompile(`^title:(.+)$`) // TODO: proper expr parser supporting quoting
+	attrExpr  = regexp.MustCompile(`^attr:(\w+):(.+)$`)
 
 	// used for width/height ranges. 10 is max length of 32-bit
 	// int (strconv.Atoi on 32-bit platforms), even though a max
@@ -259,6 +260,16 @@ func parseExpression(ctx *context.Context, exp string) (*SearchQuery, error) {
 			and(locConstraint)
 			continue
 		}
+		if m := attrExpr.FindStringSubmatch(word); m != nil {
+			and(&Constraint{
+				Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+					Attr:       m[1],
+					SkipHidden: true,
+					Value:      m[2],
+				},
+			})
+			continue
+		}
 		log.Printf("Unknown search expression word %q", word)
 		// TODO: finish. better tokenization. non-operator tokens
 		// are text searches, etc.
diff --git a/pkg/search/expr_test.go b/pkg/search/expr_test.go
index 9bf0e6c81..f19068c19 100644
--- a/pkg/search/expr_test.go
+++ b/pkg/search/expr_test.go
@@ -103,6 +103,78 @@ var parseExprTests = []struct {
 		},
 	},
 
+	{
+    name: "tag with spaces",
+		in: `tag:"Foo Bar"`,
+		want: &SearchQuery{
+			Constraint: &Constraint{
+				Logical: &LogicalConstraint{
+					Op: "and",
+					A: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+					B: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							Attr:       "tag",
+							Value:      "Foo Bar",
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	},
+
+	{
+    name: "attribute search",
+		in: "attr:foo:bar",
+		want: &SearchQuery{
+			Constraint: &Constraint{
+				Logical: &LogicalConstraint{
+					Op: "and",
+					A: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+					B: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							Attr:       "foo",
+							Value:      "bar",
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	},
+
+	{
+    name: "attribute search with space in value",
+		in: `attr:foo:"fun bar"`,
+		want: &SearchQuery{
+			Constraint: &Constraint{
+				Logical: &LogicalConstraint{
+					Op: "and",
+					A: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+					B: &Constraint{
+						Permanode: &PermanodeConstraint{
+							Attr:       "foo",
+							Value:      "fun bar",
+							SkipHidden: true,
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		},
+	},
+
 	{
 		in: "tag:funny",
 		want: &SearchQuery{
@@ -204,6 +276,7 @@ func TestSplitExpr(t *testing.T) {
 		{"foo bar", []string{"foo", "bar"}},
 		{" foo  bar ", []string{"foo", "bar"}},
 		{`foo:"quoted string" bar`, []string{`foo:quoted string`, "bar"}},
+		{`foo:"quoted \"-containing"`, []string{`foo:quoted "-containing`}},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		got := splitExpr(tt.in)
@@ -225,6 +298,7 @@ func TestTokenizeExpr(t *testing.T) {
 		{" -foo  bar", []string{" ", "-", "foo", " ", "bar"}},
 		{`-"quote"foo`, []string{"-", `"quote"`, "foo"}},
 		{`foo:"quoted string" bar`, []string{"foo:", `"quoted string"`, " ", "bar"}},
+		{`"quoted \"-containing"`, []string{`"quoted \"-containing"`}},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		got := tokenizeExpr(tt.in)