Notebooklm is the perfect AI tool for school and workplace. This is what it does

If there was a single AI tool that everyone would wholeheartedly recommend, it would be a notebook lum in a mile. It's true that it's not a standard chatbot like Gemini (with Google's AI) or ChatGpt, but this tool allows you to find its location at most people's live shows.

NoteBookLM breaks down complex subjects into easy-to-understand formats and helps brainstorm new ideas and other useful student- and worker-driven features. There is a mobile app for iOS and Android that makes it easy to use on the go. It continues to get better without feeling over-packed with features just for that.

I'm grateful for the notion of what can be done when Notebooklm was first published and enjoying casually tinkering with it, but I've experienced it in the real world – and solidified how great Notebooklm is for me when I need such a tool to exist. This is easily my favorite AI tool and can be used almost every day.

Notebooklm is not just a chatbot that Google packs AI, but also allows you to take notes. It's both, not both. Instead of asking Gemini questions, just to find answers from the ether of the internet, Notebooklm simply searches for the sources you provide it. This is a dead simple concept that feels like one of the most practical uses of AI, giving way to the perfect research companion for your class or work. And Google didn't stop there.

Now it can do more and reward your thrusts to see what you can do for you. And its impressive audio overview-like features have since been fooled by Gemini itself and become available for use in product sets of Google's products.

Below I'll explain what's most interesting about Notebooklm (including the newly announced ones) and how it has become one of my favorite AI tools.

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What is Notebooklm?

Notebooklm is a Gemini-driven note-taking and research assistant tool that can be used in a variety of ways. It all starts with the sources you supply it, whether it's a web page URL, YouTube videos, or audio clips, and can bring your organization to scattered ideas and notes by combining multiple sources into cohesive packages.

The most obvious use case for Notebooklm is to use it in school or at work. Think about it – you caught up with countless classes and typed notes for everyone, and probably recorded several lectures. Sieve everything individually and ultimately gives you similar understandings, but what if you could make them work together?

Once you upload the source, Gemini starts working to create an overall overview of the material. From there you can start with Gemini's questions about a particular topic about the source, and information from the source is displayed in a clear format. This alone may be enough for those trying to make the most of their notes, but it's really just damaging the surface.

Available on desktop and mobile

NoteBookLM is available for desktop for a while and is divided into three panel layouts consisting of source, chat and studio panels. Both the source and studio panels are folded, allowing you to have a full screen chat experience if you want.

The source panel and chat panel are pretty self-evident, but the studio panel can cause magic (although some features can also be created directly from the chat panel). This is where you can make the most of your notebook experience.

Notebooklm App: Philosopher's Stone for Data, in your pocket

Those familiar with desktop experiences will feel at home with a new mobile app for iOS and Android. The streamlined app allows you to switch between sources, chats and studio panels via the menu at the bottom. When you access the view to see all notebooks, you will see tabs for Recent Shares, Titles and Downloads.

Not everything is in the app yet, but it's only a matter of time before it matches the full functionality of the web version.

Audio Overview

If you didn't hear Notebooklm when it was first announced, it could have done so when the audio summary was released. Once you have uploaded at least one source, you can choose to generate an audio summary. This provides “deep diving” to the source material. These overviews have not been created by anyone other than Gemini and are not a quick summary of the material in audio format. This is a full-fledged podcast with two “hosts” that break down complex topics into easy-to-understand information. They are also very effective, and often they often ask each other questions to dismantle a particular topic.

The default length of an audio overview depends on how much material you look at and the complexity of the topic, but I'm sure there are other factors. In my test I created a 5 minute audio clip with very short text, but the two long, dense Google Docs documents I uploaded created an 18 minute overview.

If you want a little more control over the length of your audio overview, you're lucky. Users who were announced in a blog post on Google I/O earlier this month have three options available to choose from: shorter, default, and longer. This is perfect for those who want to have a short, dense podcast-like experience when they want to get to the heart of a long theme.

You can interact with AI Podcasters

That's even better. Last December, Notebooklm got a new design and a new way to interact with audio overviews. The customization button allows you to guide the conversation to cover key points. Enter the directive and then generate an audio summary.

If you want to make this feature even more interactive, you can choose the interactive mode that is still in beta to join the conversation. If the clip plays and you have a specific question according to what is being said,[結合]You can click the button. If you do it, the speaker pauses and acknowledges your presence, asks you to chime with thoughts and questions and get a reply.

I wanted to try something a little different, so I threw the lyrics to the song as the only source. The AI ​​podcast duo began to dismantle the motivations and emotions behind the words. Using the concatenation feature, pointing out details of lyrics they didn't touch on, and the two began analyzing what my suggestions mean in the context of their writing. I then started linking the theme to other parts of the text. It was impressive to see. They handled the emotional weight of the song so well, and they treated it skillfully with it.

Mind Map

I've heard something interesting about the Mind Map feature in Notebooklm, but I wanted to be blind when I tried it, so I did another test. I took about 1,500 words from Homer's Odyssey and made my only source. I then clicked on the Mind Map button, and within seconds I was able to see an interactive, categorical breakdown of the text.

Many of the broken sections had subsections of deeper dives, some of which were dedicated to a single line for dissection. Clicking on a map category or endpoint opens a chat at a pre-applied prompt.

I chose to jump into the “Now without treatment” line and once clicked, the chat portion of the notebook Lum resumed at the prompt where I completed it. [the subsection] Alternative (even worse). “I got a full line with motivation (or other references) about who said it, what it responds to, and why the line was said in the text.

Study guides etc.

If the combination of audio overview and mind maps sounds like everything students need for their perfect learning peers, Notebooklm has several other features that solidify it in its place.

Study Guide

After uploading the source, you can create a quick studdy guide based on materials that automatically provide quizzes, potential essay questions, and glossary of key terms and answers for the quiz at the bottom. You can also convert the study guide to a notebook source if you wish.

FAQ

Whether you are using it for school or want to create a FAQ page on your website, the NotebookLM button generates a set of potentially general questions based on the source.

Timeline

If you're looking for a timeline for each play, it's built right away. When I created a timeline for an excerpt from the Odyssey, the main event in the bulleted list was broken and placed based on the time mentioned in the material. If the event takes place at an unspecified time, it will appear at the top of the timeline and state this. The cast of characters for reference is also generated under the event timeline.

Briefing Documents

The briefing document sounds exactly like that, providing a quick snapshot of key themes and important events to speed up someone. This includes specific quotes from the source and location. A summary of the material is also created at the bottom of the document.

Notebooklm really sold me

I already have a 1.0 day concept and execution of Notebooklm, and my appreciation has been enhanced by reexamining the new features. My test was primarily fun and to see how this tool bends, but it helped me to use it when I “need” it and get an idea of ​​how powerful it is, even if it's simple.

During the product briefing, I took a typical note: I hope I can open Google Docs and start typing fragmented ideas about key points and translate what I mean when I need to refer to them. I knew I would also receive an official press release, so I wasn't worried about it (too much) but I wanted to put the notebook lum in tests in real situations when I was actually using it.

I decided to create a new notebook and create a coarse notebook (which at first glance looks like a series of haiku) to see what came out on the other side. Not only did Notebooklm fill in the blanks, but I also read the overall summary almost as well as the press release I received the following day. I was impressed. It felt alchemy – Notebook Rum took a rather incomprehensible language and instead turned it into something simple, it turned it into a very impressive explanation.

Interestingly, I have since become a more thorough note taker, but it made me feel at ease to know that there are things that can save you the day if you want.

Video summary is in progress

Another feature announced at Google I/O was the video overview, and it sounds exactly like that. Currently, there are no time slots other than “coming soon” from blog posts, but it should be a good way to get a more visual experience from your notes.

I had heard before that a video summary could be ongoing thanks to detectives from the test catalogue. Additionally, this article will allow you to publish notebooks and view a list of editor picklists, which will ultimately lead you to notebook lum. The editor's pick feature hasn't developed a head yet, but you can actually share notebooks directly or make them accessible to anyone.

While waiting for an overview, here is the following preview:

If you need more from Notebooklm, consider upgrading

The free version is robust enough that most people will not need to pay for notebook lum. However, if you are using it for work and need to be able to add more sources and options to share notebooks with multiple people, then Notebooklm Plus is worth considering. It offers everything while introducing more customizations, additional privacy and security features and analytics. It's worth noting that Notebooklm Plus will also be packaged in Google's new AI subscription.

For more information, don't miss Google using Flow and Veo 3 to all-in with AI videos.