Looking to check out some of the best patios Edmonton has to offer this summer? Well, there’s an app for that.Created by NAIT electrician student George Shantz, Patio Buzz is an app where users can see what patios are near them, a description and picture of the establishment.Originally the idea started as a website.“Would’ve been last August that I started just a website, patiobuzz.com, just to kind of review patios,” Shantz said.“And then been building the app since about November, so about six months or so just working on it, trying to figure out how everything works. That’s kind of when the full app started.”Shantz said the app went live about two weeks ago and just hit 800 downloads as of Friday.Originally it was slated for a July 1 release, but its popularity grew enough to warrant it being released early.The list of patios has started to expand around the province and just last week started assembling a list of Calgary patios.“So let’s say you live in Edmonton, you go down to Calgary, you don’t know any patios, you just add the app and it’ll tell you all the closest ones to you.”Shantz said he’s also started working on a list of family friendly patios and even dog friendly patios to be featured in the app.Currently, Shantz is a third-year journeyman electrician with a day job, but his dream is to have the app become his full-time job.He said one feature that’s taken off in generating revenue is the feature patio of the week, where discounts will be listed for that week’s patio.He said restaurants are starting to contact him asking to be featured.
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