Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. The branding catches the product up with the rest of Google’s AI portfolio, but you’ll be more interested in some of the new features.
Every notebook now includes an isolated execution environment. Gemini can generate and execute code against the documents you’ve uploaded. Google says the environment has no outbound internet access and no access to files outside the notebook, which keeps analysis contained to the source material you’ve provided.
NotebookLM began life as an AI-assisted reading companion. It summarized documents, surfaced connections, generated study guides, and answered questions based on your sources. Running code inside the notebook adds a different class of work. Financial models, survey data, research datasets, log files, and spreadsheets can now be analyzed directly instead of simply described.
Google has been busy consolidating its AI products under the Gemini brand. NotebookLM was an outlier, but it was also the one Google AI product everyone knew by name. I get the “super app” strategy, but I’m not sure “Gemini Notebook” is going to do much more than confuse the user base.
The competitive landscape hasn’t changed. Every major vendor wants its AI platform to become your AI operating system. Once your documents, data, applications, and workflows all run through one interface, switching costs dramatically increase.
For personal users, this refactor and rebrand is great news. They actually made the product better. For enterprise users, this will all come down to how much data your SecOps, risk, and compliance peeps are willing to let you access.
Every company needs a Claw strategy. Do you have one?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.