Although Google’s classic suite brings a lot of good software for daily use, I admit Keep fell short for me years ago. I’ve been wandering from app to app ever since I’m looking for the perfect free note taking app For me: I used some famous ones like Evernote or OneNote, Notion or more task management like Todoist, but in the end it was either too steep a learning curve or I had to go through payment to be satisfied.

Finally I didn’t have to leave the Google ecosystem to find an alternative Much more complete than Keep. It actually has Gemini’s AI, and it feels great because it’s a good helper for note-taking, summaries, transcriptions, and similar tasks, although the AI ​​still has a lot of room for improvement.

NotebookLM is the perfect Google notebook

Once the login is complete, the mystery ends: it is NotebookLM, and it is something like Google’s Notion or Microsoft’s OneNote, but adapted for today. That is, with artificial intelligence. To explore this area you just need to sign in with a Gmail account by entering https://notebooklm.google.com/ so I don’t need that No need to install apps, create new accounts, or worry about compatibility. with other devices or operating system.

Everything is saved in my notebook in my main Google account at: One site that centralizes everything. But you can add several notebooks in it (yes, each supports up to 50 sources), in my case one for each project. Of course, you can also create other completely independent domains with other Google accounts. I only use it for work: jotting down ideas, saving interesting articles or references as links or X posts, among other formats.

But let’s start from the beginning. When you first open NotebookLM, the first thing it asks you for is: add information from different sources and formats: Google Drive documents I’ve worked on, YouTube videos, PDFs, any internet connection, copy-pasted plain text, drafts, and even MP3 audio files. In short: my business ideas and current projects have a place, no matter where they come from.

I mentioned above that I had trouble learning in other note applications, but the same thing does not happen to me in NotebookLM: Its interface is as simple as a simple bulletin boardIt’s something I appreciate as I tend to be quite chaotic and prefer to have everything organized and at hand. So, on one side you have the pinned notes and on the other side you have the resource list.

However, there is also a chat interface where you can find them all quickly just by providing some information. Regarding flows, everything feels intuitive and familiarWith the usual upload or share icons for anyone using Google, or with the star/color scheme showing where Gemini is (in Notebook Grid, for example).

Even at minimum levels, the AI ​​in this laptop stands out

We wish you good luck, although there is still a lot of room for development and growth. Let me explain: you can only use the app as a notepad gathering information and using it the old fashioned way (which is what I usually do except for certain things), but you can also use a chatbot to ask questions. It is used in the same way and generally for working meetings, creation of graphs, transcriptions, summaries.

I mentioned in the introduction that the application is equipped with artificial intelligence, specifically Gemini 1.5 Pro, which offers a context window of 1 million coins, which means a wider, more precise processing and understanding capacity and more fluency in responses. If you know a little about Gemini’s features, you know that this version is paid. The good thing is No need to pay to use it integrated into Notebook LM and it’s a joy. Moreover, the content you upload is taken as basis to produce content, which provides peace of mind against possible errors and hallucinations.

Although the compilation of so many references in such a variety of formats and in such a recognizable and adaptable interface as Google already encouraged me to take the experimental step, what the editorial director of Google Lab said on the X account finally convinced me: Sometimes finding new ideas or summarizing a video or a Converting audio to text helps a lot. Who was going to tell me this vitaminize Artificial intelligence notes application would be a very good idea.

The main reason for the possibility of improvement and expansion is Audio Summaries are currently only available in English and I’d love to use it in Spanish, which is the language I usually work in and also read and listen to podcasts in. It requires more effort in English, but I used it in some subjects.

What exactly does it do? Turn notes and resources into a podcast of sorts with two very natural voices, like two people having a conversation about the subject, a dialogue that goes over everything. I find this format very interesting for covering a topic in a fun way, for example to study during your academic term or in my case to educate myself on certain topics.

Cover | Screenshot, montage with Mockuphone and photo by Chris Appano on Unsplash

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