Google is updating NotebookLM, its AI note-taking and research assistant, with new tools to help users simplify complex research, as well as support for additional file types.
The service deploys Deep Research, a tool that automates and simplifies complex online research. Google says the tool works like a full-time researcher by creating detailed reports and recommending relevant articles, papers, and websites.
Deep Research will take your questions, create a research plan, and browse your website on your behalf. After a few minutes, you’ll see a report based on the source that you can add directly to your notebook. You can continue adding other sources while Deep Research runs in the background.
The idea behind Deep Research is to allow you to create a deep, organized knowledge base about a topic without leaving your workflow.
To access Deep Research, start a search in the sources panel and select “Web” as the source. Next, choose your research style. If you are looking for a complete explanation and detailed analysis, you can select “Detailed Investigation”. Or, if you want to search easily, you can select ‘Fast Research’.
With additional support for more file types, you can now upload Google Sheets, Drive files as URLs, Google Drive PDFs, and Microsoft Word documents. It says this change will allow users to generate summaries from spreadsheets and quickly copy and paste multiple Drive files as URLs.
Google says these new updates should be available to all users within a week.
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Since its launch in late 2023, Google has been building NotebookLM with additional features. Earlier this year, Google introduced video summaries in NotebookLM, allowing users to transform dense multimedia such as raw notes, PDFs, and images into easy-to-understand visual presentations. This addition builds on the audio summaries feature, which generates AI podcasts based on documents shared with NotebookLM, such as course readings and legal summaries. In May, Google released the NotebookLM app for Android and iOS, making the service available beyond the desktop.
