Feature Graph is the product category system which TurboSquid has expanded from an older system of 300 categories into approximately 20,000 (and growing). We believe that more detailed categories will assist customers in searching for specific content. This will help your assets be found more quickly. Instead of a roadster model getting lost in a larger category like “coupe,” those models will appear in a separate category for roadster.  Your asset will still appear in the larger searches, but we think that the added specificity will be fruitful.

What we have learned about customers is that they want to find assets quickly and accurately. The new category search suggestions help to speed up a customer’s experience. These new categories reduce the effect of spam tagging. “SUV” used as a keyword for a “Sedan” asset will not help your model sell, nor will the incorrect brand of cellphone help you. A customer can still get to your assets through keywords, so please continue to describe your models accurately and fully.  We can also track customers’ searches more specifically. This will allow us far greater insight into their needs, which we will in turn share with the artist community.

These new categories will appear on your model’s product page. They will replace the categories that artists pick within the Publisher, and they are based on the categories in Publisher. So if you pick “airplane” in the Publisher and have no Feature Graph categories assigned to your model, you will still see “airplane” on your product page. We assign categories based on your keywords, your  chosen categories, and our own product knowledge. Artists will still continue to choose categories within the Publisher, as it helps us find our own matching categories. We will have a system for choosing from the new categories within the Publisher as soon as it is user-friendly enough for the community.

Another shift in categories is that we now feature a classification of Brands, which are vital to our understanding of Licenses. Adding spam brands to your keywords not only will not help your sales, rather, it will trigger a different message on your Product Page.

If you feel that TurboSquid has improperly categorized your product, please send a note to breadcrumbs@turbosquid.com. Please include the asset number as well as the change you feel is needed. We want to feature every type of object in the world, especially if you are building a new item that doesn’t exist already.