Google Just Added an Important Feature to NotebookLM

NotebookLM, one of Google’s most under-the-radar AI products, just got a powerful update — web search integration. If you’re not familiar, NotebookLM is Google’s AI-powered note-taking tool that works with your personal data, including PDFs, Google Docs, Slides, web pages, and more. You can feed NotebookLM with information, and the app will be able to help create summaries, reports, FAQs, and now, even curated search results.

A new feature called Discover Sources allows users to search the web directly from within NotebookLM. When a user describes a topic of interest, NotebookLM scans through hundreds of web sources in seconds. It selects up to 10 of the most relevant sources, along with notes explaining why each source might be useful for your topic. With just one click, you can add them to your notebook as part of your reference.

To test this feature, just follow these steps:

• Go to notebooklm.google.com
• Open a notepad.
• In the Sources panel , click the Discover button .
• Describe the topic you are interested in.

This isn’t the only upgrade. Earlier this year, NotebookLM added YouTube video support, allowing you to paste a public video URL and make it part of your reference. You can get summaries, citations, and watch videos in an embedded player. Google also added an Audio Overview feature, which turns documents, charts, slides, and more into audio AI summaries that can be shared with others.

NotebookLM is available for both individual and organizational users. If you are in an educational environment (EDU) or enterprise, your Workspace administrator can enable it across your entire domain.

As useful as it is, NotebookLM is still one of Google’s most underrated and underused tools. When used properly, NotebookLM can be incredibly useful, especially for students, writers, analysts, or anyone who regularly works with complex research papers. With updates like this, NotebookLM is shaping up to be a tool that could change the way we do research with AI.