diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4a9732a..43e6806 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 name = "nucleo"
 description = "plug and play high performance fuzzy matcher"
 authors = ["Pascal Kuthe <pascal.kuthe@semimod.de>"]
-version = "0.1.0"
+version = "0.1.1"
 edition = "2021"
 license = "MPL-2.0"
 repository = "https://github.com/helix-editor/nucleo"
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index 9d2725d..59386bd 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -345,6 +345,6 @@ pub fn fuzzy_match<T: AsRef<str>>(
                 .map(|score| (item, score))
         })
         .collect();
-    items.sort_by_key(|(item, score)| (Reverse(*score), item.as_ref().len()));
+    items.sort_by_key(|(_, score)| Reverse(*score));
     items
 }
diff --git a/src/pattern.rs b/src/pattern.rs
index 9475a13..f9939c6 100644
--- a/src/pattern.rs
+++ b/src/pattern.rs
@@ -373,7 +373,9 @@ impl Pattern {
         self.atoms.clear();
         let pattern =
             PatternAtom::literal(pattern, self.normalize, self.case_matching, kind, false);
-        self.atoms.push(pattern);
+        if !pattern.needle.is_empty() {
+            self.atoms.push(pattern);
+        }
         self.status = if append && self.status != Status::Rescore {
             Status::Update
         } else {