NotebookLM's Biggest Updates Yet - Every New Feature Explained

Notebook LM Overview and New Features [00:00]

• Notebook LM is a free tool from Google that allows users to create notebooks by pulling together sources from various file types, including PDFs, websites, and videos.
• Its core function is to ground AI-generated answers in specific sources, significantly reducing hallucinations and improving the trustworthiness of the information.
• The video highlights two major new features: "Deep Research" for source discovery and NanoBanana Pro integration for content generation.
• Additionally, it covers smaller, less obvious feature upgrades and overlooked pro tips.

"It's the best way to organize your learning and knowledge and actually trust what the AI tells you. if you set it up right."

Source Discovery: Fast Research vs. Deep Research [01:04]

• The "Fast Research" option allows users to type in a topic and find around 10 relevant sources to import into their notebook.
• The new "Deep Research" feature, integrated from Gemini, is an agentic tool that autonomously researches a topic, analyzes findings, and adapts its search strategy to fill gaps.
• Unlike in Gemini, Deep Research in Notebook LM not only provides a research report but also imports all its used sources directly into the notebook.
• This new option discovered 52 sources for the "path to AGI" topic, and users can select the top 20 to import, with an option to remove failed sources (e.g., paywalled content) all at once.

"What makes this integration so useful is that it doesn't just give you the research report like it does in Gemini. It also pulls in all the sources it used as notebook sources."

Pro Tip: Identifying Source Blind Spots [02:27]

• A pro tip suggests asking specific questions to identify blind spots in research sources, such as incompleteness, bias, or missing perspectives.
• Three rotating questions are provided:
  1. Identify disagreements and contradictions between sources.
  2. Identify gaps in sources needed for full topic understanding.
  3. Identify contrarian, alternative, or lesser-known viewpoints not covered.
• These questions help users understand different perspectives, pinpoint inaccuracies, and discover new sources or general knowledge gaps.

"But that's only as good as your sources. Like what if your sources are incomplete, biased, or missing key perspectives?"

Content Generation Studio: New Features [04:28]

• The "studio panel" offers various formats to view, understand, and retain information from notebooks.
• Existing formats include audio overview, video overview, mind map, reports, flashcards, and quiz.
• Two new options are now available: "Infographic" and "Slide Deck," both utilizing NanoBanana Pro.
• A pro tip is to click the "edit" button before generating these to customize settings rather than just clicking the feature itself.

"And with these NanoBanana Pro features, especially, the customization makes a huge difference."

Infographic Generation [05:11]

• Infographics are described as one of the most "mind-blowing" NanoBanana Pro features integrated natively into Notebook LM.
• Users can select sources, choose orientation (landscape, portrait, square), and detail level (concise, standard, detailed).
• They can also describe the desired infographic to guide its style, color, or focus.
• Generated infographics, even for dense topics like AGI alignment, show a high level of detail and organization, though minor errors can occur, especially in the "detailed" version.

"What comes back is just incredible. This was the standard option, and there is just so much information on here."

Slide Deck Generation [08:38]

• The "Slide Deck" feature offers two options: "Detailed Deck" for comprehensive text and "Presenter Slides" for clean, visual slides with talking points.
• Users can choose the length (short or default) and describe the desired slide deck content (outline, audience, focus).
• The generated slide decks are noted for their sleek design and ability to illustrate concepts effectively, with the "Detailed Deck" providing extensive text.
• The tool is capable of generating accurate graphs and images from scratch, which is presented as a significant advancement.

"Starting off here, this is a pretty sleek design. AGI paradox. We are building something we can't consistently define, reliably measure, or safely control."

Use Cases for Infographics and Slide Decks [09:41]

• Examples of infographic use cases include creating a visual representation of a resume/LinkedIn profile, visualizing complex topics like the "mass glitch protocol" for educational tools, or detailing subjects like Bitcoin mechanics or AlphaFold.
• Slide deck ideas include creating storybooks, simplifying deep research reports into slides, organizing messy notes into organized thoughts, or transforming ugly slides into visually appealing ones.
• Users are also sharing unique applications, such as generating lore for Dungeons & Dragons homebrew campaigns.

"It's truly incredible. My ability to pump out lore to my homebrew Dn D site has just grown exponentially."

Video Overview Enhancements [11:55]

• The "Video Overview" feature, which creates a narrated explainer video, has been significantly upgraded with custom visual styles powered by NanoBanana Pro.
• Users can choose between "explainer" (comprehensive) or "brief" (bite-sized) overviews.
• Custom visual styles can be selected from a provided stylist or created by the user, with an example of a "retro 80s computer interface" shown.
• While impressive, the video narrator notes that this might not be a feature they would regularly use for their own learning preference, but acknowledges its power and potential for others.

"This was here before and it creates a narrated explainer video on your topic, but they improved this massively with the update by adding custom visual styles powered by NanoBanana Pro."

Chat Improvements and Notebook Configuration [12:48]

• A significant upgrade to the chat feature is automatic saving of conversations when leaving the platform, eliminating the need to manually click "save to note."
• Users can still delete chat history or save chats as notes, which can then be converted into sources for future querying.
• The "Configure Notebook" options in the top right allow users to customize notebook responses for different goals: "General Purpose" (default), "Learning Guide," or "Custom."
• Response length options (default, longer, shorter) can also be adjusted per notebook.

"Your chats are now automatically saved when you leave. Before you had to click save to note, or your chat would disappear when you left, and I lost many conversations by accidentally navigating away."

Detailed Slide Deck and Video Overview Final Views [14:31]

• The detailed slide deck, once generated, is described as very thorough with a ton of text on each slide, appearing well-done and accurate at a glance.
• The video overview, when finished, presents a realistic-sounding voice and a well-designed aesthetic that matches the requested style, effectively illustrating concepts with minor noted errors like "turning test" instead of "Turing test."
• Both features are highlighted as extremely useful for understanding topics and are considered significant advancements over previous capabilities.

"Really, there is no other tool that comes anywhere even close to being able to do something like this right now to be able to like actually generate each of these images from scratch and illustrate each of these concepts so well."