Chester County Daily News Business Briefs

Duck Duck Go Reaches New Heights

Duck Duck Go, the internet search engine success story from Paoli, PA, is now handling more than 3 billion seaches a year and is quickly becoming one of the go to browsers for internet searches. The reason for its rise in popularity is that, unlike the giant browser names such as Google or Yahoo, it does not track your search patterns and history. Not only does this keep your internet browsing more private but it also prevents advertisers from following you around while you search. Google Chrome offers an “incognito“ option which is supposed to increase your privacy but Gabriel Weinburg, the founder of Duck Duck Go says “This is a big myth, when you’re in Incognito mode, Google is still tracking you.“ With Duck Duck Go now one of the default apps on many popular smartphones this may just be the beginning.

Latest on Mondays Blaze on Church Street

Mulitiple fire alarms were set off in a building on the unit block of North Church Street on Monday bringing a swift response from the West Chester fire department. Reports of a fire on the roof of the building started coming in around 9:15 pm and the fire quickly escalated  to a two alarm fire which brought additional firefighters in from Goshen to help quell the blaze. The response to this emergency meant that fire trucks filled both Church and Market Streets. To get it under control, spray from ladder trucks were needed in order to give the firefighters access to the interior of the building.  Thankfully, there were no injuries reported.

West Pharmaceutical Services Begins Construction on a New Plant in Ireland

Local dignitaries, including Councillor James Tobin, the Mayor of Waterford City in Ireland, attended the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, for West Pharmaceutical Services new manufacturing plant. The facility should provide employment for more than 150 people and will provide manufacturing components for insulin injector cartridges as well as other essential components for injectable drugs to meet the ever increasing demand for West’s products. Eric Green, CEO at West, said “the advanced components that will be produced at our state of the art Waterford facility will help our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers deliver their products to patients.“ West already has another manufacturing and development center in Ireland that was completed in 2005. The new 95,000 square foot facility is due to be completed by 2018.

Preparations Underway For The Visit of Pope Francis

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is already gearing up for the planned visit of Pope Francis as a part of the World Meeting of Families that is going to be held in the city from September 22-27, 2015. City officials are already predicting that the event could draw as many as 1.5 million additional visitors the bulk of which will most likely want to see the pontiff when he arrives to show his support, over the weekend of September 26 and 27. Despite the early planning, Mayor Michael Nutton, said yesterday that “Private vehicles may not be an option and that visitors should be prepared to walk for miles during the event.“