At the same time Google is exploring ways to advertise on traditional radio stations, Microsoft appears to be taking a different route:  online radio.  Yes, it's true… MSN has long had radio capabilities.  But according to the Cleveland Leader, that radio is now powered by Pandora Internet Radio.

Pandora, the result of the Music Genome Project, takes a single song or artist and turns it into a radio station.  Using MGP technology, Pandora analyzes the song entered by a user and then chooses additional songs based on the original song's "genetic makeup".  Listeners can indicate which songs they like or don't like to further train the radio station.

I can tell you from personal experience, the Pandora service is pretty cool.  You can fine-tune a radio station that literally keeps churning out song after song that you might like.  I was really impressed with Pandora's ability to choose songs I enjoyed, even if I hadn't heard them before.  And that's part of the goal of the service - introducing users to new music.  Of course… it's possible to over-train a station.  I kept training and kept training until one of my stations only played the same 5 songs over and over again.

While the service is cool, I should get to the main point of the post.  Microsoft is taking an existing, third-party project and integrating it into their existing set of services.  By introducing MSN users to a technology they might not have found on their own, Microsoft is not only benefiting its users, but also strengthening its position in online radio.  The amount of work needed to implement the new feature had to be minimal on Microsoft's part.  The hard part had already been done!

Maybe online radio would seem a little strange next to the selection of hearing aids that you sell on your site.  But used as an example, Microsoft's move could be put to use on any site.  How can you implement new features and new services by re-packaging existing products into your site (legally, of course)?  A lot of online services and tools would love to increase their exposure by powering some aspect of your company.

What's going to be your Pandora?