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    Google launched Notebooks for Gemini, letting users organize files and chats into topic-based workspaces, according to the company’s blog post

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    The feature mirrors OpenAI’s ChatGPT Projects, which launched in December 2024 with similar context management capabilities

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    Google describes Notebooks as ‘personal knowledge bases’ that sync across Google products, starting with Gemini

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    This marks another instance of rapid feature replication as AI companies race to avoid letting competitors establish workflow advantages

Google is playing catch-up in the AI assistant wars. The company just launched Notebooks for Gemini, a new feature that lets users organize files, conversations, and custom instructions into topic-specific workspaces. Sound familiar? That’s because OpenAI shipped nearly identical functionality with ChatGPT Projects back in December 2024. The move shows how Google is rushing to match feature parity in the increasingly competitive AI chatbot landscape, where organizational tools have become table stakes for power users managing complex workflows.

Google just made its move to close the organizational gap with OpenAI. The search giant rolled out Notebooks for Gemini on Wednesday, a feature that bundles files, past conversations, and custom instructions into dedicated workspaces that the AI can reference during chats. It’s a practical addition for anyone juggling multiple projects in AI assistants, but it’s also unmistakably familiar.

That’s because OpenAI shipped essentially the same thing 16 months ago. ChatGPT Projects launched in December 2024, letting users store relevant context in folders that the chatbot could tap into automatically. The timing of Google’s release underscores how feature parity has become the new battleground in AI, where even incremental organizational tools can influence which platform users choose for their daily workflows.

According to Google’s announcement, Notebooks function as “personal knowledge bases shared across Google products, starting in Gemini.” Users can drag in documents, pull previous conversations, and set custom instructions that persist within each notebook. When you’re chatting with Gemini inside a notebook, the AI automatically has access to everything you’ve stored there, eliminating the need to constantly re-explain context or upload the same files repeatedly.