Google appears to be preparing a small but meaningful upgrade to NotebookLM that would address one of the platform's longest-standing complaints. A hidden UI element points to forthcoming customization controls for mind map generation, with a prompt area where users can scope the visual to a specific topic, a particular problem, or a chosen subset of sources rather than relying on the automatic, full-notebook output that ships today. A single notebook could then host multiple mind maps, each tuned to a different angle of the material, a shift researchers and students with dense libraries have been asking for since the feature launched.
This would close a real gap. NotebookLM offers no native customization for mind maps beyond regenerating them from updated sources, which has spawned an ecosystem of Chrome extensions and third-party tools built to export and reshape the diagrams elsewhere. Bringing scoping controls in-house would reduce the need for those workarounds and make mind maps a more practical companion to the chat, audio overview, and report outputs in the Studio panel.
Alongside this, the discovery page has surfaced a pointer toward Play Books as a source type. The button links directly to the books section of Google Play, though the URL is not yet functional, suggesting promotional infrastructure is being staged ahead of a wider push. Books from leading authors are framed as the hook, though it remains unclear whether Play Books will serve as another input alongside PDFs and Drive documents, or whether deeper hooks, such as importing personal libraries, are planned.
The combination fits a broader pattern at Google of tightening the connective tissue between its research, reading, and Workspace surfaces. NotebookLM has steadily expanded its source palette over the past year, and a Play Books bridge would give the app a clear way for rights-protected reading material to flow into a grounded AI workflow without users having to manually capture quotes. Both pieces remain in development, so timing and final scope are still open.
