Trying to get Google coords with PHP .. timing out?

Trying to get Google coords with PHP .. timing out?

I'm trying to get Google lat and long from a user entered address. I would
like to do this before database insertion, but maybe there is a better
way?
When I run this function as a standalone, it works and returns coordinates
$addressString = "21 Albert St Montreal H2W2H1";
function get_google($addressString){
if (!is_string($addressString))die("All Addresses must be passed
as a string");
$_url =
sprintf('http://maps.google.com/maps?output=js&q=%s',rawurlencode($addressString));
$_result = false;
if($_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];
}
echo $_coords['lat'] . " " . $coords['long']; // echoes correctly
}
.. but when I try this in my code it seems to only return NULL for those
values. (I'm using Codeigniter)
$data->name = $this->input->post('name');
$data->address = $this->input->post('address');
$coords = $this->get_google($data->address);
$data->goog_lat = $coords[0]; // seems to be returning NULL
$data->goog_long = $coords[1]; // and i get 'undefined offset' errors
(because of NULL, i guess?)
$this->client_model->add_client($data);
.. so when I try that I am not getting Google coordinates.. only NULL values.
Can anyone tell me what I am screwing up, or a better way to do this? Is
this because of some timing issue or is it something else?