DEBUG /tags.php ================= RAW $_GET['tag']: string(6) "censor" Trimmed $tag: string(6) "censor" Normalized $tagNorm (lower+trim): string(6) "censor" Probe SQL (news): SELECT id, article_title, tag1, tag2, tag3, tag4, tag5 FROM news WHERE LOWER(TRIM(tag1)) = ? OR LOWER(TRIM(tag2)) = ? OR LOWER(TRIM(tag3)) = ? OR LOWER(TRIM(tag4)) = ? OR LOWER(TRIM(tag5)) = ? ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10; Rows Found: 1 Array ( [0] => Array ( [id] => 17219 [article_title] => Switzerland the next to ban the new Rammstein album? [tag1] => Rammstein [tag2] => liebe ist fur alle da [tag3] => censor [tag4] => Switzerland [tag5] => pussy ) ) Extra sanity checks: Distinct tag1 values containing substring: Array ( )