Pandora CEO describes how social discovery helps

Internet radio service Pandora Media recently tweaked its music recommendation software so that older Counting Crows fans in San Francisco will receive a playlist of the band's earlier songs, while a younger fan in New York will see more recent tunes. Pandora makes those recommendations based on the user data it tracks. And the Oakland company is also sifting through the list of bands and music that its members are discovering to help other Pandora users expand their own musical interests. Those are examples of how so-called social-discovery tools are changing the nature of the Internet from its initial "search-and-find mind-set," Pandora Chief Executive Officer Joe Kennedy said Wednesday during Glimpse: The Social Discovery Conference in San Francisco.