Google’s Pinpoint is the free research tool you should know about

Google Pinpoint, a free research tool, is now accessible to the general public after being previously restricted to journalists and academics until June 3. This tool allows users to store and analyze vast amounts of digital information, including transcribing hundreds of hours of audio and video, and making scanned documents and handwritten notes searchable. Users can upload various file types, with each collection supporting up to 200,000 files and an unlimited number of collections. Journalists and academics can apply for "Pinpoint for Professionals," which offers 100 gigabytes of storage, while general users begin with 1GB. Audio and video files can be up to 2 hours long and 8GB. The tool enables users to search, summarize, and organize their uploaded files, making it easy to query, label, and extract data from large document sets without complex commands. Users can increase their storage by creating separate Pinpoint accounts for different Google accounts or by requesting additional storage if they reach their limit. The tool also integrates with Google Takeout to export Gmail folders in .mbox format.