Google is renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook
The Verge Emma Roth ● Covered by 4 sources
Google is renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook, tying it closer to its main AI brand. It's also getting a code-running feature and will soon show up inside Search's AI Mode.
Based on reporting by The Verge, Emma Roth — read the original for the full story.
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Google just gave one of its stealthier AI products a rebrand. NotebookLM, the note-organizing app that's quietly picked up a cult following, is now Gemini Notebook. Emma Roth's report for The Verge frames this as less a shutdown and more a merger of identities: the app stays standalone, but it's getting woven tighter into Gemini and Google Search.
The app has come a long way from its origins. Google first showed it off back in May 2023 under the name Project Tailwind, then released it widely just months later. Since then, the feature list has grown well past simple note summaries — users can now turn their notes into AI-generated podcasts, narrated slideshows, and even short TikTok-style clips. Google also recently let people link their notebooks directly into the Gemini app, which is presumably part of why the naming now needed to catch up with reality.
The bigger move buried in this announcement is where Gemini Notebook is headed next: AI Mode, Google's chatbot-style search experience. Google says notebooks will eventually be accessible there too, which would put personal notes and research directly inside search results rather than in a separate app people have to remember to open.
Along with the rename, Google is also rolling out a feature it teased last month — the ability for Gemini Notebook to connect to a secure cloud computer that can write and execute code. Right now that's limited to Google AI Ultra and Workspace business customers, but Google says it's coming to Pro users on the web over the coming weeks. It's a small line in the announcement, but it signals Google wants this tool to do more than organize notes — it wants it doing actual computational work too.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook is Google doing what Google always does: folding a beloved niche product into the mothership brand once it proves useful. Fine, names are cheap. What actually matters here is the code execution feature and the AI Mode integration — those are the moves that turn a note-taking tool into infrastructure. Watch whether Pro users actually get that cloud-code feature
Read more about this at: The Verge