SpanSearch vs NotebookLM
NotebookLM, which Google now calls Gemini Notebook, is for asking questions of material you added. It can also search the public web and write a report. Use SpanSearch when you still need a logged-in site, a sentence someone else can open, or time in the editor after the run.
Get started for free
If the pile is ready, use NotebookLM. If you still have to find it, check a sentence, edit the result, or keep it out of a Google account, keep reading.
Papers and notes you already have can go straight into NotebookLM. This round also needs a forum, an internal doc, or search results, and some of those pages need a login. SpanSearch reads them with the session already in your browser. You do not save the page as a file first, and you do not give it the password.
NotebookLM marks which source in the notebook a chat answer used. A deep-research report lists pages it looked at. When you hand the conclusion to someone else, SpanSearch points at the sentence. They open that passage and decide if your line stays.
NotebookLM’s next version is often a different object: audio, slides, a quiz, a map. If what you need to change is a sentence, a picture, or a board, SpanSearch keeps this copy in the editor.
A NotebookLM notebook lives in a Google account. SpanSearch keeps the conversation, the library, and the sources you connect on this device. If the material cannot leave this computer, use SpanSearch.
If one of these is your situation, here is how SpanSearch handles it.
A search result, or an article that only opens after you log in, is a source as it stands. You do not download it, and you do not upload it into a notebook.
Get started for free
Gather the relevant pages, then open and read them. The report uses what is on the page, not the title and not a blurb.
Get started for free
Once the report is in the library, the source passage hangs next to the claim. Read it, translate or shorten it if you need to, then keep the line or drop it.
Get started for free
When the run ends, you stay here. The editors are already in the product.
| Feature | SpanSearch | NotebookLM |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Research on sites you name, written so it can be checked and edited. | Questions about material already in a notebook, or another format generated from it. |
| Sources | Sites you name, including pages behind a login. No file to save first. | Files, web pages, YouTube, and Google Drive you add. You can also search the public web and import what you want. |
| Reading | Gather the relevant pages, then read them. | Deep Research reads the public web and writes a report. A quick search gives titles and blurbs. You choose what to import. |
| Citations | The claim points at the sentence. The passage stays beside it. | Chat marks the source in the notebook. A report lists pages it looked at. |
| Afterward | Edit this copy in the text, image, vector, map, and whiteboard editors. | Another audio overview, video, slide deck, quiz, or map. |
| Where it lives | Chats, the library, and sources you connect stay on this device by default. | The notebook lives in a Google account. |
| Fits when | You still have to go find it, someone has to open the sentence, or you still have to edit. | The sources are in, and you want to ask, listen, or turn them into study material. |
If the sources are in and the next step is to ask them, use NotebookLM.
If you still have to find it, check it, edit it, or keep it on this device, use SpanSearch.
SpanSearch reads the sites you allow. Claims in the report open onto the passage, and the result stays there for you to edit.
Get started for free