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Google enhances NotebookLM: new features for information management and a more powerful AI for students and researchers.

Google has recently updated its note-taking app NotebookLM, designed for students, researchers, and anyone who needs to organize collected information. Now, in addition to Google Docs, PDFs, and text files, users can upload Google Slides and web URLs as sources. This innovation significantly expands the app’s usability, making it an even more versatile tool.

Among the new features is the Notebook Guide, which analyzes uploaded sources and creates study guides, FAQs, and briefing documents, with inline citations pointing back to the original sources to verify AI responses. Users can upload up to 50 sources per project, each up to 500,000 words long, a significant increase from the previous limit of five sources. This tool proves particularly useful for those managing large amounts of data and needing precise references.

Another significant update is the ability to ask questions about charts, images, and diagrams uploaded to the platform, thanks to the integration with Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro language model, the same one powering the paid version of the Gemini chatbot. This allows users to extract numbers and information directly from visual representations, making NotebookLM a powerful tool for visual data analysis.

In a recent briefing, Raiza Martin, senior product manager at Google Labs, emphasized how NotebookLM is a closed system that does not perform web searches but reads the content of websites added by users. The app’s answers come exclusively from the corpus of information uploaded by users, ensuring a high level of accuracy and relevance.

During a test of the new features, it was possible to add new data sources, get inline citations, and ask the language model to analyze graphs. For example, NotebookLM was asked to extract data from a PDF containing a line graph and provided the desired information. Additionally, the app could summarize the text of the EU AI Act, giving an overview with precise citations.

However, during the demonstration, uploading web URLs did not work as expected: links started the upload process but did not appear on the list of available sources.

Google provided examples of how NotebookLM is being used, mentioning author Walter Isaacson, who used the platform to analyze Marie Curie’s journals for his upcoming book. Various non-profit organizations also use NotebookLM to identify needs in underserved communities and organize information for grant proposals. Additionally, NotebookLM’s target audience includes not only researchers and students but also writers and role-playing game enthusiasts, as demonstrated by a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master who used the app to prepare a campaign.

NotebookLM is now available in over 200 countries and supports more than 100 languages, making it a global tool for information management.

Highlights:

• Expanded accepted sources: Google Slides and web URLs can now be uploaded.
• Notebook Guide: creates study guides, FAQs, and briefing documents with inline citations.
• Chart and image analysis: thanks to the Gemini 1.5 Pro model, users can ask questions about visual data.
• Global availability: the app supports over 100 languages and is accessible in more than 200 countries.