Image Use Policy

This page explains how ProductIndex uses product images provided by or authorized by manufacturers and brands. It is intended for marketing teams, legal contacts, and anyone evaluating whether to authorize their images for use on this platform.

Questions not answered here: hello@productindex.ai · (480) 269-0580

What ProductIndex is

ProductIndex is an AI-synthesized product intelligence site. We publish structured product profiles — a one-line verdict, recurring buyer praise and criticism, competitor comparisons, use-case targeting, and specifications — derived from publicly available review data. As of 2026, we cover 726+ products across 23 categories. Product pages are similar in format to a detailed, aggregated product review.

You can see a live example at: productindex.ai/p/coffee-grinders/fellow-opus

Are the images intended for display only, or for an AI database?

Primarily display. Images are shown on product profile pages in our web interface — in a gallery on the product detail page and as thumbnails in search results. Credit attribution (e.g. "© Fellow. Used with permission.") is displayed alongside every image.

Image URLs (not the image files themselves) also appear in machine-readable formats described below, so that AI agents and structured data consumers can reference and link to the images with attribution. We do not aggregate images into any AI database, embedding store, or training corpus.

Will they be shared with AI crawlers, MCP, llms-full.txt, or JSON-LD?

Image URLs (with credit attribution) appear in the following machine-readable formats:

JSON-LD structured data — each product page's <head> embeds a Schema.org Product object that includes image URLs. This is what Google uses to generate Product rich results and image carousels in search.
Markdown endpoint (/p/{category}/{slug}.md) — includes an ## Images section with URLs and the credit string. Used by RAG pipelines and AI agents that fetch product content by URL.
llms-full.txt — a full site dump that includes the markdown content for every product, which means image URLs appear here with attribution as part of each product's image section.
MCP server — our MCP server may return image URLs as part of product data when AI clients (Claude Desktop, Grok, Cursor, etc.) query product details.

In all cases, image URLs appear — not the raw image files. The credit string is always included alongside the URL so attribution travels with the reference.

Will they be indexed by search engines?

Yes. We generate an image sitemap (/sitemap-images.xml) submitted to both Google and Bing. Product pages include JSON-LD schema referencing image URLs, which enables Google Product rich results and image search indexing.

This is one of the primary benefits of image authorization — manufacturer images on ProductIndex gain additional search visibility through Google's Product rich results and image search, with the manufacturer's alt text and attribution displayed.

Are downloads permitted for users?

Images are publicly accessible at their hosted URLs (standard browser behavior applies — right-click, save-as). We do not provide a dedicated download button or grant end users any rights to reproduce or redistribute images. Copyright remains with the image owner. Our credit attribution is displayed on every product page to reinforce this.

Might they enter AI training data or be shared with third parties?

No. ProductIndex does not use manufacturer or brand product images in any AI training process — not for model training, fine-tuning, embedding generation, or any other machine learning purpose. We do not license, sell, share, or transfer manufacturer images to any third party for any purpose. Images are used exclusively within the ProductIndex platform to illustrate product profiles.

What does a product page look like?

You can see a live example of how images are displayed at:

productindex.ai/p/coffee-grinders/fellow-opus — Fellow Opus grinder with authorized press kit images

Images appear in a gallery with a vertical thumbnail strip on desktop (horizontal on mobile). The credit string appears below the main image. In search results and category browse views, a small thumbnail appears on the left side of each product card.

Does the platform include commercial elements such as advertising or affiliate links?

Yes, with clear disclosure. Product pages may include:

Affiliate links — "Where to buy" buttons that link to retailers. These are always accompanied by an FTC disclosure line. We earn a commission when users click through and purchase. Affiliate links do not influence profile content, verdicts, or comparisons.
Sponsored offers — producer-submitted promotional placements labeled "Sponsored Offers." These are editorially separate from the AI-generated profile content and never appear within verdicts, review summaries, or comparisons.

Product images are displayed in the profile section of the page, not within sponsored content blocks.

How do manufacturers authorize their images?

We request written permission from each manufacturer's marketing team before adding their images. Permission grants are tracked per-manufacturer with an agreed credit string (e.g. "© Brand Name. Used with permission."). Images are sourced from official media kits, press pages, or manufacturer-supplied files.

To authorize your images or ask questions about how your brand's products are represented: hello@productindex.ai · (480) 269-0580

See the For Brands page for an overview of the full producer relationship, including product verification, specification corrections, and sponsored placements.