Deep Research supercharges NotebookLM to instantly scan hundreds of websites for you

NotebookLM is having a big month. Google’s AI-powered learning and study tool received flashcard and quiz support on its iOS and Android apps last week and the updates haven’t stopped. Now, NotebookLM is gaining support for Deep Research, the Gemini feature that builds research reports from scratch, announced in a Google blog post. It’s also adding better integration for Google Drive files, and can handle Microsoft Word documents for the first time.

Deep Research and NotebookLM are similar resources. Deep Research creates a research report by scanning sources on the web, while NotebookLM curates learning materials from uploaded sources — which can include web links, but is not limited to them. Google is bringing Deep Research functionality to NotebookLM to “automate and simplify complex online research.” Users can ask Deep Research in NotebookLM a question, and it’ll scan hundreds of websites to build a sourced research report.

Compared to Deep Research in Gemini, the NotebookLM experience doesn’t end when a research report is generated. From there, users can add the report and every web source used to create it into their NotebookLM notebook. This data will feed NotebookLM’s other features, like the AI chatbot, Audio Overviews, and Video Overviews. If a Deep Research report doesn’t turn out the way a NotebookLM user expects, they can refine their prompt to guide it in the right direction.

Users can try out Deep Research in NotebookLM by creating a notebook, selecting Web as the source, and choosing Deep Research. The other research style is Fast Research, which is the new name for the existing Discover sources feature. Google explains Deep Research is “best for a full briefing,” while Fast Research is “best for a quick search.”

The latest NotebookLM update also handles Google Drive files better. They can now be uploaded as sources simply by copying and pasting the file’s URL, like websites and YouTube videos. Google Sheets and PDFs in Drive are now natively supported in NotebookLM, eliminating the need to download and reupload them separately.

Finally, NotebookLM is adding support for Microsoft Word (.docx) files as sources. It’ll also soon let users upload photos and images as sources, such as from a handwritten notebook.

Google is rolling out NotebookLM’s Deep Research and expanded file type support now, and it will become available to all users over the next week. NotebookLM image support needs more time to fully roll out, with Google noting it will become available “over the next few weeks.”