Google is introducing a new feature called "Featured" notebooks in its AI note-taking app NotebookLM, designed to provide users with pre-loaded research content and allow them to interact deeply with the content using its powerful AI tools, including an AI podcast creator, thus enabling more efficient learning and exploration of various topics. This move marks an important step for Google in terms of user experience and knowledge sharing.
These "Featured" notebooks are created in collaboration with well-known authors, researchers, and publications, preloaded with rich research materials covering a wide range of topics, from the science of longevity to parenting advice, and classic literature. The eight released featured notebooks include a longevity notebook written by Eric Topol, the author of "Super Age," a notebook on parenting advice from Jacqueline Nesi's Substack newsletter "The Tech Human," and a Shakespeare Complete Works notebook. In addition, Google has also partnered with renowned publications such as The Atlantic and The Economist to launch their own featured notebooks.
Previously, Google began allowing users to publicly share their notebooks last month. This new update introduces the "Featured" notebooks feature, which takes it a step further by allowing users to directly explore and utilize a series of pre-prepared content, rather than relying solely on self-created content. According to Google, over 140,000 users have shared public notebooks in the past four weeks, showing a strong interest among users in knowledge sharing and collaboration.
Steven Johnson, the editor-in-chief of NotebookLM, posted on X that these "Featured" notebooks not only allow new users to experience the practicality of NotebookLM in collecting project resources, but also signal that thousands of expert-curated notebooks covering various topics will be available for users to add to their personal collections in the future, enabling them to access the knowledge they need at any time.
These featured notebooks not only include original texts from books, plays, newsletters, or online articles, but NotebookLM automatically summarizes this information and pre-installs notes on the topics discussed in the source material. Users can also interact with NotebookLM's AI chatbot to ask questions about this information, or even listen to pre-generated audio summaries (similar to a podcast-style discussion hosted by an AI "host") to absorb knowledge in various forms.
Google said that it plans to continue launching new "Featured" notebooks, which will include more high-quality content from The Economist and The Atlantic.