Discover How NotebookLM's Update Revolutionizes Research with Automatic Source Gathering

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Brewed! Today, we're diving into Google's latest update to NotebookLM—an essential note-taking service, especially for those tackling extensive research projects. Host Greg Doig unpacks Google's new Discover feature, an innovative tool that promises to save you time by automatically collecting the most relevant sources for your research. Forget the tedious task of scouring the web for sources; simply describe your topic, and let NotebookLM handle the rest. Imagine generating a curated list of sources and even creating a study guide or a briefing document with just a few clicks. Plus, you might even get to listen to an AI-generated podcast tailored to your research topic! Stay tuned as we explore how this tool might just become your new best friend for research, and what Google has in store for the future of NotebookLM.

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Transcript

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If you've ever spent hours gathering sources for a research paper or project, you're gonna wanna hear about Google's latest update to NotebookLM. NotebookLM has already established itself as a handy note taking service, ideal for projects requiring extensive research. Typically, you'd need to gather and add sources yourself, which would then incorporate into your project. But now Google has taken this a step further with a new feature called Discover that promises to save you even more time by collecting the right sources automatically. Here's how it works. Instead of manually searching the web for relevant sources, you simply describe the topic you're researching. NotebookLM then surfs the web on its own and creates a curated list of relevant sources. The AI analyzes hundreds of possible online sources and displays the names and brief summaries for the 10 it considers most relevant. You can import them all or deselect any you don't want to include. These sources are then added as research to your project. What makes this tool particularly powerful is what you can do once those sources are added. You can ask notebook l m to generate a study guide, a briefing document, an f a q, or even a timeline based on your sources. Head to the notebook l m page at notebooklm.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Click the create new button to start a new project. At the window to add sources, select discover sources from the web, then simply type a description of your topic. If you're having trouble coming up with the topic, there's even an I'm feeling curious button that will explore a random topic chosen by the AI. I decided to test this feature by asking Notebook l m to find sources for a topic on 14 inch and 15 inch laptops with the best tactile feel, keyboards, and the best battery life. After submitting my description, the AI quickly found 10 sources. I imported them all and was then able to request a briefing document and even listen to an AI generated podcast discussing my topic. This new feature is undoubtedly a time saver since you no longer have to manually search for every possible source on your own. And according to Google, this is just the beginning. In their words, Discover sources is the first of a series of notebook l m features that uses the power of Gemini to find and collect relevant sources for your notebook. The feature is rolling out now to all notebook l m users, though the complete rollout may take about a week.