diff --git a/application/LinkDB.php b/application/LinkDB.php
index 929a6b0..d80434b 100644
--- a/application/LinkDB.php
+++ b/application/LinkDB.php
@@ -291,7 +291,7 @@ You use the community supported version of the original Shaarli project, by Seba
 
             // Remove private tags if the user is not logged in.
             if (! $this->_loggedIn) {
-                $link['tags'] = preg_replace('/(^| )\.[^($| )]+/', '', $link['tags']);
+                $link['tags'] = preg_replace('/(^|\s+)\.[^($|\s)]+\s*/', ' ', $link['tags']);
             }
 
             // Do not use the redirector for internal links (Shaarli note URL starting with a '?').
@@ -442,7 +442,7 @@ You use the community supported version of the original Shaarli project, by Seba
         $tags = array();
         $caseMapping = array();
         foreach ($this->_links as $link) {
-            foreach (explode(' ', $link['tags']) as $tag) {
+            foreach (preg_split('/\s+/', $link['tags'], 0, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY) as $tag) {
                 if (empty($tag)) {
                     continue;
                 }
diff --git a/tests/LinkDBTest.php b/tests/LinkDBTest.php
index 46956f2..3130606 100644
--- a/tests/LinkDBTest.php
+++ b/tests/LinkDBTest.php
@@ -317,6 +317,10 @@ class LinkDBTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
                 '-exclude' => 1,
                 '.hidden' => 1,
                 'hashtag' => 2,
+                'tag1' => 1,
+                'tag2' => 1,
+                'tag3' => 1,
+                'tag4' => 1,
             ),
             self::$privateLinkDB->allTags()
         );
diff --git a/tests/utils/ReferenceLinkDB.php b/tests/utils/ReferenceLinkDB.php
index fe16baa..fcc7a4f 100644
--- a/tests/utils/ReferenceLinkDB.php
+++ b/tests/utils/ReferenceLinkDB.php
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ class ReferenceLinkDB
             '',
             1,
             '20121206_182539',
-            'dev cartoon'
+            'dev cartoon tag1  tag2   tag3  tag4   '
         );
     }