Databases: searching for a word in entries containing multiple words using 'like'

Okay, so, as my actual code involves a complicated JOIN and I couldn't get the SQL query to work, what I've ended up doing is the following:

Code:

$this->db->where('title LIKE ', $search.'%');
$this->db->or_where('title LIKE ', '% '.$search);
$this->db->or_where('title LIKE ', '% '.$search.'%');
$this->db->or_where('title LIKE ', '% '.$search.' %');

CI's inbuilt like and or_like seem to be pretty limited when it comes to arguments (before, after, both, none), but utilising where and or_where does the trick for my needs.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions pointing me in the right direction.