What is NotebookLM’s new Mind Maps tool and how do I use it?

Summary

• NotebookLM is a Google AI research assistant for note-taking and summary generation.
• NotebookLM recently launched a new Mind Maps feature, which lets you view your notes in a branching diagram style.
• Here’s how to get started with this all-new Mind Maps tool.

Google’s popular artificial intelligence research assistant, NotebookLM, has just picked up a brand-new superpower: it can now generate Mind Maps. These Mind Maps can be thought of as branching diagrams, which visually demarcate main topics, related ideas, and key themes as you go about your flow of research and note-taking.

“Mind Maps help you grasp the overall structure and key themes of your source material more easily than reading through lengthy documents,” says Google in a new support document.

Since initially releasing in 2023, NotebookLM has proven to be an indispensable tool for many researchers and note-takers. The tool, which leverages Google Gemini on the backend, can generate summaries and can even create podcast-like Audio Overviews based on whichever sources you feed into it.

What is NotebookLM’s new Mind Maps feature?

The tool helps you visually summarize your notes via branching diagrams

If you’ve ever used the Graph View feature of Obsidian, which is another popular AI note-taking service, then you’ll have an idea of what to expect from NoteBook LM’s Mind Maps tool.

When enabled, Mind Maps provides a bird’s-eye overview of whichever data sets or sources you’ve fed into its system. Google refers to this as ‘understanding the Big Picture,’ with a branch-like visual graphing interface for easy navigation.

…the goal is to streamline and simplify the note-taking experience for the end-user.

In practice, Mind Maps allows you to zoom in and out, pan, and scroll while navigating through various auto-generated summaries. These summaries are organized into branches which connect with one another, and can be expanded or collapsed at will. Different ‘nodes’ can connect to one another to “help you identify links and associations that might not be obvious.”

While the technological underpinnings of the Mind Maps feature are undoubtedly complex, the goal is to streamline and simplify the note-taking experience for the end-user.

How to create your own NotebookLM Mind Map

You can generate a new Mind Map in a matter of seconds

To get started with Google’s NotebookLM Mind Maps feature, follow these steps:

1. Head over to the official NotebookLM website.
2. Open a new or previous notebook.
3. Upload the sources that you’d like NotebookLM to pull data from.
4. Click or tap on Chat panel > Mind Map.
5. From here, your customized Mind Map will be generated and will appear under the Notes section of the Studio panel.

Google is in the process of rolling out this new NotebookLM Mind Maps feature. If it doesn’t show up for you right away, check back in the coming days.