PHP code to get the latitude and longitude of an address

<?php
/**
 * 获取某地址的经纬度
 * by http://bbs.it-home.org
*/
function getLatLong($address){ 
    if (!is_string($address))die("All Addresses must be passed as a string"); 
    $_url = sprintf('http://maps.google.com/maps?output=js&q=%s',rawurlencode($address)); 
    $_result = false; 
    if($_result = file_get_contents($_url)) { 
        if(strpos($_result,'errortips') > 1 || strpos($_result,'Did you mean:') !== false) return false; 
        preg_match('!center:\s*{lat:\s*(-?\d+\.\d+),lng:\s*(-?\d+\.\d+)}!U', $_result, $_match); 
        $_coords['lat'] = $_match[1]; 
        $_coords['long'] = $_match[2]; 
    } 
    return $_coords; 
}
?>