why this php cURL function can't work

Question

function get_data($url) {
  $ch = curl_init();
  $timeout = 5;
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_URL,$url);
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
  curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT,$timeout);
  $data = curl_exec($ch);
  curl_close($ch);
  return $data;
}

i find this function from the internet. when i test it in a php file using this code $returned_content = get_data('http://google.com'); but it can't work.and get a "301 Moved Permanently" The document has moved here. error. why?

Answer 1

According to your comments, you are getting a 302 status code. Try

curl_setopt($ch,CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION,true);

to follow 30x redirects.

Manual on curl_setopt()

Answer 2

add one more option to your get_data function :

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);

Google is redirecting you to the local google servers and your curl call currently isn't chasing redirects.

oh yeah,
and do a var_dump($returned_content); to see the results :P