NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook

(blog.google)

52 points | by xnx 2 hours ago ago

33 comments

  • freedomben an hour ago

    I wondered when the name change was coming as NotebookLM felt a bit out of place brand-wise. Still would have been killer if they called it "Bard Notebook"

    • forkerenok 18 minutes ago

      I wondered when the name change was coming because this is Google: products be endlessly repackaged and renamed, some only to be killed later.

  • aanet 38 minutes ago

    I fear the upcoming changes... It ALWAYS starts with a name change, then more useless features, more ensh*ttification, then users flee, then the product is killed.

    Google:

    - Hangout

    - Chat

    - Meets

    - Duo

    - ...

  • NguyenDat377 10 minutes ago

    I feel like the name reflect the product more. I have been using NotebookLM for studying and really like it. I wonder if with this name change, would there be a major change in Gemini Notebook ?

  • drusepth an hour ago

    Very, very, very excited to hopefully stop getting support emails at Notebook.ai for people trying to get help with NotebookLM.

    Gemini Notebook is a way better name for the masses.

  • simonw 18 minutes ago

    I was never sure what the "LM" stood for, so this makes sense to me.

    • annjose 15 minutes ago

      Apparently it is Language Model, as mentioned in the announcement of NotebookLM in 2023 [0].

      > Today we’re beginning to roll out Project Tailwind with its new name: NotebookLM, an experimental offering from Google Labs. It’s our endeavor to reimagine what notetaking software might look like if you designed it from scratch knowing that you would have a powerful language model at its core: hence the LM.

      It's funny how similar that article's intro is to today's announcement.

      [0] https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/ai/notebook...

    • BrokenCogs 17 minutes ago

      Language model?

      Large model?

      Learning machine?

  • blfr 42 minutes ago

    I admonish Gemini and demand explanation nearly every day of how it's possible that Google invented the thing, has the best infrastructure for inference, and somehow falls behind Anthropic and even OpenAI.

    NotebookLM is pretty cool since it can hold a ton of context but this is so far below my (and frankly just reasonable) expectations of Google.

    I downgraded my Gemini subscription and got Claude. Still can't believe how much better it is. Fable is way better, that's a given. But Claude even has a real .deb repo. Something Antigravity had and managed to lose.

    • speak_plainly 19 minutes ago

      I share your sentiment. I'm still paying for Gemini but it's almost useless to me. Google has some serious internal problems. Perhaps Gemini is merely being plagued by aggressive cost controls, or perhaps there are deeper flaws in Google’s approach. Either way, I can't trust NotebookLM with serious work and have stopped using it.

      Apple is placing a major bet on Google and Gemini for iOS 27. If Gemini's decline is any indication of what's to come, Apple could be in serious trouble in six month's time.

    • dwa3592 19 minutes ago

      Antigravity sucks so bad that I have started to feel that google really doesn't wanna compete, they just wanna hang in there at number 2 or 3, to just annoy the number 1 and 2.

      • SwellJoe 15 minutes ago

        For coding, I don't think they're even number 3, anymore. Seems more like 4th or 5th (unbelievably, even Mecha Hitler seems to do better, though I'm hopeful Gemini 3.5 Pro will turn things around).

    • shellfishgene 19 minutes ago

      Also enshittification is slowly starting. Yesterday I asked Gemini (in the Android app) for a recommendation for an app for sound recording. Instead of it answering I got a popup to allow Gemini access to open the app store (or something like that, I didn't allow it). When I declined it just stopped the conversation. It was actually hard to get it to just reply with a list of apps. And I have an AI subscription with Google!

    • copperx 32 minutes ago

      Yeah, it grinds my gears. They could probably have lightning speed inference and the best model if they were interested in doing so.

  • SwellJoe 19 minutes ago

    Because naming every product "Copilot" is going so well for Microsoft, I guess?

  • dubcrab 31 minutes ago

    NotebookLM is genuinely useful for structured research workflows. My concern is not the name. It's whether the "notebook" metaphor survives the rebrand.

  • minraws an hour ago

    Guys google, I know enough people in the company to know how this decision was made, but I must say as a user if you rename or kill another thing I will stop using any Google service I still use.

    This might be the one time I might forgive it but guys please don't it's annoying.

  • baggachipz 40 minutes ago

    If it's named "Gemini", does that mean it's going to get shoved in your face on every single google-related page/product?

  • navigate8310 an hour ago

    NorebookLM sounded a little scholastic

  • staticman2 an hour ago

    They probably changed the name because they've been integrating it with the Gemini web page where it now appears on the left above recent chats.

  • abirch an hour ago

    Are there other tools out there like NotebookLM? Not a replacement but some cool AI tools that help people learn.

    • petra an hour ago

      Or maybe just a way to use chatgpt/Claude with files , and get accurate references to the page/paragraph in the source?

      • jeromegv 25 minutes ago

        Claude/ChatGPT still end up making things up when they can't find anything, notebook is much better to 99% reply based on quotes. But yes a backup is to use Claude and grep, but not quite the same.

      • hek2sch 35 minutes ago

        It's cumbersome to have llm duplicate all quotes and still get good response. Else you get no visibility in your sources.

    • hek2sch 36 minutes ago

      Best closest I stumble on is nouswise. Let's you contain an agent with even more sources and generate almost all outputs.

  • lvl155 14 minutes ago

    Company run by consultants and MBAs.

  • NoImmatureAdHom 31 minutes ago

    I'd like to have audio overviews of scientific papers, so I can "read" them while I drive. NotebookLM/Gemini Notebook sorta does this, but the two-person podcast format is kind of annoying and it can't pronounce math.

    Is there something out there that will do this? I'm sure the right harness around frontier models would make it work.

    • larrywright 20 minutes ago

      Readwise does this pretty well.

    • mistrial9 27 minutes ago

      random idea -- driving while you drive?

  • batuhandumani an hour ago
  • LurkandComment an hour ago

    Next step, monitize every pixel, result and second into adveristing placement