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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- I tried NotebookLM for a month and was pleasantly impressed.
- Its perks go beyond the viral Audio Overviews, including organization and AI chats.
- The tool is free to use, and college students can get access to premium features for free.
One of the best parts of my job is chatting with industry folks who, like me, eat, sleep, and breathe AI tools. After meeting with yet another (non-Google-affiliated) media person who told me how much they loved NotebookLM last month, I decided to give it a real try.
Although I’ve tried several individual NotebookLM features for ZDNET before and have been impressed, finding a way to incorporate NotebookLM into my workflow seemed daunting — especially because every time I’ve tried project management tools such as Notion or Asana, I was instantly overwhelmed and never stuck with them.
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However, for this article, I committed to the bit and moved some of my everyday content into NotebookLM — here’s how it went (and some ways to get the most out of it). Oh, and what it happens to be the most known for, the viral Audio Overviews feature, was my least-used feature, and actually only scratches the surface of what NotebookLM can do.
1. Easy to organize your files
Google describes NotebookLM as a “Your Personalized AI Research Assistant,” and while the title may be true, it is a little vague. Practically speaking, NotebookLM is a virtual information manager in which you can upload your own files and organize them into “notebooks.”
Those notebooks have several AI-powered features, such as the ability to generate a Study guide, a briefing document, an FAQ, a Timeline, and even an AI podcast. I will get into that soon. Right now, let’s talk about its most underrated feature: organization.
Importing all of your documents and sources into a new notebook is simple. As mentioned before, I typically give up at this point with content management applications because creating each individual content section takes a lot of toggling and brainpower. While customization is great, I am more of a plug-and-play user. With NotebookLM, all you have to do is click on “Create New” and then upload a source by dragging and dropping a file from your computer or dropping a link or Google Workspace file.
Also: NotebookLM now lets you share your notebooks with anyone with a single link. Here’s how
In my initial tests, I opted to create a new notebook for every story I was working on that had multiple elements, such as an audio file with the interview I conducted, a press release, a spec sheet, and more.
Once I uploaded all the sources, I renamed the notebook, found a summary of sources, and automatically generated a transcript of all the audio memos I uploaded. These features make it easy to keep your workload filed neatly. For students who have to balance multiple sets of notes, exams, PowerPoints, readings, and more, I can see this organization system being so incredibly helpful.
Since I always want to further my craft, I am pursuing some classes outside of work, and have started new notebooks with assignment memos and syllabi for specific classes. This is so helpful because I can just ask questions such as, “When is my next assignment due?” or “What days do I not have classes on?” and get an answer from the text instead of me having to manually look. More on this use case below.
2. Using AI to search is actually a game-changer
The core of the NotebookLM experience lies in the AI features powering it. Once you upload everything into your notebook, you are met with a chat interface that isn’t very different from what you see on ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI chatbot you prefer to use. The difference is that this chat interface pulls information directly from all the sources you upload, instantly making your content searchable.
Also: Google’s NotebookLM can gather your research sources for you now – and it’s free
While you can also upload your sources to any of the popular chatbots and have a Q&A-like experience, NotebookLM is set apart by a couple of things. First, it can synthesize multiple pieces of information at once from different mediums. So, if you ask a broad question, it will pull from all of the resources you fed it, provide an answer informed by the collective, while also linking back to them all with little footnotes. The second major win is that NotebookLM only pulls from the information you feed it.
This is a major advantage for students and working professionals alike because the biggest risk when using an AI chatbot is hallucinations and bias due to being trained on the entirety of the internet. Because it is only pulling content from the sources you input, you can ensure you trust the content it’s using information from. There is also the option to drop web links if you want NotebookLM to reference top sources, such as informational YouTube videos. So you aren’t completely disconnected from the web — you just have more control.
It can also search the transcripts that it automatically generates for your voice memos. This was a huge win for me because I uploaded interviews, which I was then able to easily parse by saying something like, “What did the speaker say about XYZ?” and then I was shown the exact text. I can see this functionality also being beneficial for students who record their lectures or working professionals who record their meetings.
Also: NotebookLM now lets you chat with expert guides from top publishers, and Shakespeare – here’s how
Another standout AI feature is Audio Overviews, which produces AI podcasts between two virtual hosts. ZDNET has written full, glowing reviews on this feature before because it is really that good. Personally, I have yet to find a situation in which I could benefit from the Audio Overviews, mostly because the content I am uploading into NotebookLM is already content I have read and am familiar with. However, students who may want to learn more about a particular subject or working professionals who may want to know more about the materials they have yet to be briefed about may be able to benefit.
3. Enterprise-level protection for Google Workspace plans
If you have access to NotebookLM through your Google Workspace account provided by your company, organization, or school, then you also get to enjoy enterprise-level protections on the information you upload. These stipulations include protections such as not being able to train on your data, which is especially important when uploading proprietary and business resources. That security, combined with all of the answers being pulled from the resources you give it, tackles the biggest issues that people face when using chatbots.
How students can access it for free
Ahead of back-to-school season, Google made its Google AI Pro subscription tier free for college students. To be eligible, you need to be a student 18 or older in the US, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, or Brazil. The plan includes all of the best of Google’s AI suite of tools, including expanded access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Deep Research, Veo 3, Jules, and, of course, NotebookLM.
NotebookLM Plus includes five times higher usage limits to some of its greatest features, including Audio Overviews, notebooks, queries, and sources per notebook.
You can keep up with my latest stories and tech adventures on social media. Follow me on Twitter/X at @sabrinaa_ortiz and on Instagram at @sabrinaa.ortiz.
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