I just wanted to mention the fine print that Google includes at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/. As it stands, what this article does would breach Google license restrictions that state that use of the geocoding service is only allowed if you are also displaying a map. So, unless the map URL is used and the map view is rendered, Google may ban you from using the API. Of course, Google was only used as an example here, but if someone implemented this exactly, they might find their API call suddenly doesn't work.