Find Parking Anywhere, Online

Well, not anywhere...ParkWhiz is currently up and running for only two cities: Chicago and Philadelphia. But the site, now in beta, promises national coverage in the near future, at which time it'll be a must-visit destination before you venture into a strange city in a rental car.

The idea is pretty simple: Plug in the address of the place you'd like to visit, and ParkWhiz searches for the nearest parking garages. Garages are listed in order of closeness (down to the foot!), with an estimated walking time supplied as well. Additionally, a few garages have price information, and I assume this will continue to be filled in for the other garages as the site is built out. You can sort your results by any of these criteria or by user ratings (which don't appear to be active yet).

Naturally, ParkWhiz provides a map of your destination, surrounded by icons for each of the nearby parking garages.

It's a simple idea but one that could be a huge boon for travelers and even for suburbanites who seldom make trips into the city. Heck, I live in San Francisco proper, but when I venture into some parts of downtown by car, I'd love to know where the best deals on parking really are.

I'd love to hear from any Chicagoans or Philadelphians as to how complete ParkWhiz's results are, as well as how accurate its price information is. (Note that the site will ask you to sign up for a beta, but you don't need to unless you want to be notified when additional cities are available or sign up for their service to buy and sell parking spots, known as ParkWhiz Marketplace.)