The present invention relates to phonetic self-improving search engines. The search engine may include a phonetic database having a plurality of phonetic equivalent formulas stored therein, each of the phonetic equivalent formulas being associated with at least one respective pronounceable unit. After an initial query in a primary database fails to produce a positive result, an error memory database may be queried with a search string to obtain a positive result based on records of previously failed searches which ultimately found a positive result. If no record is found, the search string may be parsed into at least one pronounceable unit. Phonetically equivalent formulas may be applied to the at least one pronounceable unit to create at least one phonetic search string which is re-queried into the error memory database and the primary database. Successful positive results may be stored with the search string in the error memory database.