- Google is testing the NotebookLM feature Audio Overviews in Search
- The feature will offer short, AI-generated audio summaries for certain queries.
- The feature uses Gemini models to deliver podcast-style explanations with clickable links.
I’ve been a fan of the Audio Overviews feature in Google’s NotebookLM since I first experimented with it last year. Now, it’s coming to Google Search, currently only as a test in the Labs, but it brings a more bite-sized version of the AI-generated “podcasts” that I like in NotebookLM.
Once you’ve opted in through Labs, you’ll start seeing a little prompt on some search results pages saying, “Generate Audio Overview.” Tap that, wait about 30 to 40 seconds, and out comes a compact audio clip of around five minutes, sometimes less, that explains what you looked up in the form of two AI-generated voices having a discussion. Not too deep, but not one-sentence shallow either. Think of a middle ground between “Wikipedia rabbit hole” and “I read the headline only.”
While you listen, the audio player stays docked in your results page, showing clickable links to the sources the AI pulled from. You can keep browsing, tap into related articles, or just listen and absorb. If you like what you hear, you can give it a thumbs up. If it’s egregiously wrong, the thumbs down is there too.
Though similar to what NotebookLM does with its Audio Overviews, the Search version has one major difference. NotebookLM only uses documents you upload, YouTube videos, and websites you specifically link to. Google Search’s version pulls from public web content. That can be good or bad, depending on what you look up. Something straightforward and scientific might be fine, but a discussion about the best movie ever might get a different audio track every time you look. Here’s an example I recorded a clip from.
AI podcast searches
It’s hardly perfect, and while the voices are good, they are still AI voices. You also might notice it parroting phrases straight from someone’s Reddit post. But it is listenable and, as Google points out, hands-free, with the option to adjust the speed of the speakers and the links there to provide more context. You can speed it up or slow it down, skip around, or follow the links as you go. It’s AI-enhanced Search, not a new audiobook.
For now, not every search will offer to create an Audio Overview. You also have to be in the U.S. and sign up for Labs right now. But, I’d expect it to have a general release pretty soon. Then you can ask how lithium-ion batteries work or why Roman concrete is still standing, and get a nice mini discussion from digital characters.
Think of it as how video summaries and image carousels brought new dimensions to how we take in information online. Audio Overviews are another aspect of that and a win for auditory learners or people with visual impairments, With OpenAI and Perplexity and a dozen AI search engines nipping at its heels, Google needs whatever tricks it can muster to stand out and an AI podcast as the answer to a serach is definitely one way to be unique, at least for now.
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
