Pandora just switched from Flash to HTML5 for its fetching redesign, but that’s not the real news. The biggest thing about the change is that Pandora is different inside and out, its functionality now rooted firmly in being social.
Pandora will show its new face to Pandora One customers first, and then to everyone else in the coming weeks. What people can expect, apart from the speedy HTML5 goodness, is a completely revamped way of finding and, soon, sharing music. Jumping on the social music bandwagon with platforms like Rdio and Last.fm, Pandora will now give you a profile to keep track of your music and followers. While the control bar hovering over the action plays your favorite station, you can also explore an artist’s discography and biography or see what a friend is listening to. And when you want to change stations, the search bar can now make personalized suggestions to keep from making random genre switches.
Now all it needs is the cartoony avatars bopping back and forth a la Turntable.fm. Perfection. [Pandora via Mashable]
