Google’s NotebookLM adds ‘Deep Research’ tool, support for more file types (techcrunch.com)

Google is upgrading NotebookLM with a “Deep Research” tool that automates multi-step web research and adds support for more file types (Google Sheets, Drive files via URLs, Drive PDFs, and Microsoft Word docs). Deep Research can take a user question, build a research plan, browse selected websites in the background, synthesize a source‑grounded report, and surface recommended articles, papers, or sites you can add directly to your notebook. You can choose “Deep Research” for full briefings or “Fast Research” for quick lookups from the source panel by selecting “Web.” The rollout is expected to reach all users within a week. For AI/ML practitioners and researchers, the update reduces tedious manual literature triage and accelerates creating organized knowledge bases—useful for literature reviews, reproducibility checks, or turning spreadsheet data into concise summaries. Technical takeaways: background web browsing with end-to-end report assembly, selective research styles, and broader input formats that enable richer inputs (e.g., extracting tables from Sheets or aggregating multiple Drive docs via URLs). The change builds on NotebookLM’s earlier multimedia features (Video and Audio Overviews) and mobile apps, positioning the product as a more capable research assistant that streamlines evidence‑grounded synthesis across diverse document types.