To all those users who, when visiting the Russian Yandex resource, nevertheless agreed to install the web browser of the same name, as the developers themselves claim software, offers expanded capabilities for using built-in browser tools and some third-party tools to ensure increased comfort when working with the program. One of the most widely advertised add-ons is Yandex Zen. Read on to find out what it is, how to remove this add-on, and how advisable it is to keep it enabled in the browser itself.

"Yandex Zen" - what is it?

Based on the official description of this add-on, it is a so-called endless news feed based on user preferences.

Roughly speaking, if you are looking for materials on the Internet on a specific topic using the Yandex browser, when the extension is activated, recommendations and links to similar publications will be instantly included in the Yandex Zen news feed.

What is it, how to remove the extension - these are the questions that concern many users. But not because they don’t need recommendations, but only because all this is somewhat reminiscent of a violation of user privacy on the Internet.

Judge for yourself, it turns out that we are talking about the fact that the browser, together with the activated extension, tracks user search queries and, based on them, generates a list of preferences. What does this mean? The only thing is that all of them, one way or another, are transferred to the company’s servers, after which a certain statistical report is compiled about the resources visited or queries in a search engine, on the basis of which recommendations are given for visiting a particular site containing a topic of interest to the user. Isn't this espionage?

Activation during installation

But let's try to approach the use of this add-in with an open mind. Yes, indeed, when you need to quickly find an answer to a question of interest or, say, view last news, activating the ribbon can be a very convenient tool.

The question of how to enable Yandex Zen in Yandex Browser can be resolved at the stage of installing the browser itself. The installer will prompt you to do this, simultaneously selecting the necessary sources. If the user for some reason refused to activate the setting, you can enable the extension later by logging into the browser settings. At the same time, visiting the add-on store, the link to which is present at the bottom of the main window, is completely optional. This panel is pre-installed.

"Yandex Zen": what is it and how to use the extension?

Now a few words about the settings. There are several nuances here. First, let's see what Yandex Zen has to offer (it's a little clear what this tool is and how to enable it).

The extension itself has a special smart line function for ease of use. It is designed to ensure that the search is carried out exclusively taking into account user requests, and all unnecessary garbage is eliminated.

As for practical application, no user should have any difficulties. When displaying a feed, you can use only two tools: like and dislike - emoticons with a thumb pointing up or down (like/dislike). It is not difficult to figure out that the recommendations you like will be supplemented in the list with publications similar on the topic, and those you don’t like will be excluded from the list. That is, as the user chooses which topics he likes or not, a further list will be formed. It goes without saying that it is subject to constant change (main links last for 2-5 days).

Add-on removal issues

But let's look at other issues related to expansion in more detail. It is clear that many people may not like such close monitoring by the browser.

The add-on itself can be easily deactivated in the add-on management section. Since it is not installed as a separate applet in the operating system and there is no point in deleting it through the programs and components section.

But if you use programs like iOBit Uninstaller and go to the browser add-ons section, you can see a lot of interesting things. This is where you can remove the add-on once and for all. After this, it is believed that it will become inaccessible even in the browser itself.

How advisable is it to use Yandex Zen?

This is the Yandex Zen extension. We figured out what it is and how to get rid of it. Now several practical advice to all those users who still believe that its use in the Yandex browser, if not absolutely necessary, is at least desirable.

Please note that passing on data to third parties is a criminal offence. However, almost all search engines, including such giants as Google, still collect data and do not bear any responsibility for it (yet). But if we theoretically dig even deeper, where is the guarantee that the same intelligence services or hackers will not use compromising information collected on the user based precisely on his preferences for searching for information on the Internet? Unfortunately, there is no such guarantee.

Therefore, if you don’t want to have problems, in the simplest case, use at least a VPN and never save your logins and passwords for accessing the same social networks in your browser. And even more so, never indicate your real name and location (at least turn off GPS on your mobile device and telemetry in Windows).

Instead of a total

Here is a brief summary of everything that concerns the Yandex Zen applet. What this is, taking into account all the points of view considered, I think is already clear. Whether to use this add-on or not is a personal matter for each user. If you don't care whether information about your search queries and preferred topics on the Internet is tracked, no problem.

But in the case of increased privacy requirements, it is better not to activate this extension (from a purely practical point of view). And if you are trying to use the feed with all the ensuing consequences, take at least minimal measures to remain unrecognized on the network. But maybe not everything is so bad, and activation of the add-on is used solely for comfortable viewing of topics of interest to the user? Alas, no one can give a definite answer to this question.

At the beginning of the summer of 2015, Yandex announced the launch of an alpha version of the Yandex Zen recommendation service, designed to take into account the individual preferences of the user and create a user news feed in accordance with them. Nowadays, the Zen service is built into Yandex Browser on your computer by default, and for those who are not familiar with this service, I have prepared this material where I will tell you what Yandex Zen is and how to enable Yandex Zen in Yandex Browser.

The doctrine of enlightenment "Zen", created by the Buddhist monk of the Shaolin Monastery Bodhidharma in the 4th century BC, is indirectly related to the object of my story.

After all, “Yandex.Zen” is a Yandex browser service on a PC that creates a feed of publications taking into account the user’s interests and preferences. By clicking “like” or “dislike” on each material provided by the service, the user contributes to a more accurate accounting of their interests and preferences, and next time the Yandex.Zen service, which uses artificial intelligence technologies in its work, will provide the user with content that is fully reflects his views and preferences.

Self-taught artificial intelligence built on Disco and Matrixnet technologies, which use computer vision and processing in their work artificial language. The name of the technology “disco” is an abbreviation for the English “discovery” (opening), and perfectly illustrates the essence of the implementation of this technology, which is based on the discovery of something qualitatively new. Matrixnet technology allows you to receive long chains rankings based on a complex formula taking into account many factors and their combinations.

Now Yandex Browser with Zen technology is available in 24 countries around the world for operating systems Windows, Android and iOS, this technology is also used in Yandex.Launcher - an application for Android smartphones designed to help the user organize their workspace.

How to enable Yandex Zen on PC

To use Zen technology, you just need to download the latest version of the Yandex browser and install it on your computer.

At the same time, remember that to enable and activate Yandex Zen technology, some time is required, during which the browser will observe your favorite resources and search query topics in order to create a unique model of your preferences.

1. After a model of your interests and likes has been formed, Zen will present you with recommendations for materials that will be available at the bottom of the browser window.
2. By clicking on the material window in the feed, you will see the full material opened in a separate window.
3. By tagging posts you like (thumbs up icon), you will contribute to the more frequent appearance of similar materials in your feed thanks to the included Yandex Zen.
4. And by clicking the “dislike” icon ( thumb down) you may be able to eliminate or significantly reduce the amount of such material in the future.
5. If you categorically do not like any resource, you can click on the “Dislike” button next to the material, and then click on “Block”.

The more actively you use the Zen functionality, the more often you click on “Like” or “Dislike”, the more accurate the picture of your preferences is formed by artificial intelligence, and the more relevant and useful materials will be offered to you in the future.

The variety of materials in Yandex Zen is quite extensive - you will be offered both news publications and videos, photos, blogs and so on, and all in accordance with your interests and preferences.

If you suddenly accidentally turned off the “Zen” function, then turn it on again by going to the “Menu”, selecting browser settings, and checking the box next to the “Show in a new Zen tab – Personal publications feed” function. Instructions for disabling the service are described.

You can see how turning on the “Zen” option in the Yandex Browser settings visually looks like in the video:

How to enable Yandex.Zen on Android

Enabling Yandex Zen on Android is done in a similar way; you just need to download the latest version of Yandex Browser for Android OS and wait for the system to generate a model of your interests and preferences. Enabling/disabling this service itself is located in “Settings” - “Advanced”, the option “Display Zen recommendations feed”.

Conclusion

The Zen technology described in this article is the near future of the development of Internet browsers. Already many social media(Facebook, Vkontakte, etc.) offer the user the formation of a news feed taking into account his views and preferences, and this is only the beginning of the path to creating an exclusive digital product for a specific consumer. This is done both in the interests of users who receive content “for themselves,” and in the interests of the creators of the content itself, because developers also want to know which target groups are consumers of their product, and how many users they should count on in the future. In a word, there are enough advantages to incorporating Yandex Zen technology, let’s see what the future holds for it.

In contact with

To customize your feed, Zen analyzes your interests on the Internet using views, ratings, and subscriptions. Over time, the recommendations will adapt to you. On average it takes one to two weeks. Help Zen's algorithms understand what to show you:

Specify which posts you want to see in your feed and which ones you don’t

Use icons More like this And Less of this: And . They are not intended to evaluate the quality of the material. They tell Zen which posts you want to see more often and which ones less often.

Subscribe and unsubscribe to channels

• in the recommendations feed;
• in the author's publication;
• on the website on the Channels tab.

Subscribing to a channel does not mean that all of its publications will be included in your feed. Zen will weed out channel materials that do not interest you. In addition, it will show posts on similar topics from other channels and sites.

To unsubscribe from the channel, go to the Subscriptions tab on the website. Open the desired channel and click the Unsubscribe button.

Block channels

You can block an uninteresting channel or report a channel that violates. You can do this:

• in the recommendations feed;
• in the author's publication;
• on the website on the Channels tab.

All publications of the blocked channel will disappear from the feed. You can unblock the channel on the website on the page Blocked. To open it, click your account photo in the upper right corner.

Subscribe and unsubscribe to topics

A thematic feed is a selection of publications from different channels on general theme. To subscribe to a topic:

In the search bar, enter the name of the topic, for example “humor” or “cats”. If there is such a topic in Zen, its name will appear below. Select it.

The thematic feed will open. Click the Subscribe button.

Subscribing to a topic does not mean that all publications from the topical feed will be included in the feed. Zen will weed out materials that don't interest you.

To unsubscribe from a topic, go to the Subscriptions tab on the website. Open the desired topic and click the Unsubscribe button.

If you use Yandex Browser to work on the Internet, and are also an active user and fan of the various services of this company, then you have probably already noticed that Yandex is trying to keep up with the times and is adding various functions and services for the convenience of users. Therefore, today I want to talk about one more new feature, which the developers introduced not long ago into the browser, this function is called Yandex Zen. Most likely, not many of you have heard of it, so today I want to tell you: how to enable Yandex Zen.

Yandex Zen is a special service that allows the browser to create a news feed based on the interests and hobbies of users. The program automatically monitors the interests of users, tracks search queries, records “Like” or “Dislike” marks, and after processing this information makes recommendations for the user on viewing certain news. The service's program code is built in such a way that it contains an algorithm for intelligent information analysis. This algorithm is constantly being improved, thereby the program can provide the user only with resources based on his interests and filter out unnecessary information. Therefore, if you are interested in this function, then let's figure out how to enable it.

How to enable Yandex Zen.

Note! You should not look for the Zen function in other browsers, since it is only available in Yandex Browser.

To learn how to enable Yandex Zen, follow these steps.

As you can see, in order to enable this function, you just need to update Yandex Browser to latest version, therefore, if you don’t see Yandex Zen, I recommend checking the browser version and, if necessary, updating it.

How to disable Yandex Zen.

Based on reviews on the Internet, not all users liked the Yandex Zen function. Many people are asking for help to turn it off. This can be done quite simply, the main thing is to follow the steps that I will describe to you.

As you can see, for any action there is a reaction, if we figured out above how to enable Yandex Zen, then at this point we disabled it. If, after some time, you want to use this service again, then it will be enough to return the unchecked box.

Zen doesn't work, what should I do?

If you have just activated the Yandex Zen function, then the news will be displayed randomly and will not coincide with your interests. Many users immediately begin to speak unflatteringly about the service and do not understand why they see information that is not at all what they like. But, as I said above, for the service to work correctly, the program needs to observe the user, identify what interests him and only then, having processed as much information as possible, offer the person what interests him. Therefore, actively use the Internet, look at sites that you like, like, and the program will quickly learn and produce correct results.

Let's summarize.

Most likely, many of you have not even heard of this function, but now, thanks to this article, you know how to enable Yandex Zen and how to disable it. I believe that this service will be useful for many, because, firstly, if you follow the news in the world, you will always receive up-to-date information, but not all of it, but more interesting for you. Secondly, you don’t have to surf the Internet in search of this information; the Zen service will do all the work for you. All you have to do is sit comfortably behind the monitor screen and read. Isn't that great? It’s not for nothing that the number of users of Yandex services is growing every day.

Zen is a personal recommendation service from the Yandex search engine. The selection is created based on the pages visited and personal preferences. Thus, materials from sites that are interesting to you will appear in your feed. To do this, you just need to enable Yandex Zen itself in your browser. You can also tell the service what you are interested in and vice versa, what you do not want to see in your feed. Let's get started.

You can download Yandex browser for Windows 7, 8 and 10 on the official page and install it. When you launch it for the first time, the browser will prompt you to launch the feed.

Click on the yellow button. On the next screen, you need to mark at least five desired sites for the feed. Click on the icons with your mouse.

You cannot select fewer tiles. To me, this is a strange limitation. After selecting the desired options, the button under the tiles will become active.

Now the Yandex Zen feed itself appears on the screen.

Be prepared for advertising from Direct and Market projects to appear.

In the settings, you can select the source of information about your preferences - other installed browsers.

How to set up and use Yandex Zen

This is less of a setup and more of an aid to developers. You can show Zen what materials from the feed you like and what you don’t want to see. To do this, there are two buttons under each news: like and dislike.

If you like the material, give it a thumbs up. As a result, such news will appear in your feed more often.

Accordingly, the dislike button has the opposite effect. News marked in this way will be shown less.

If you are tired of the tape, then you can use it in the following way.

In the settings in the block appearance Uncheck the box marked in the screenshot. Or the second option is to reinstall the browser. When you first start, refuse to activate the Zen service.
That's all for today. I don’t use the Yandex browser myself. I'm surfing the web in Chrome and didn't install the extension. However, I decided to include Yandex Zen in Firefox. In principle, quite an interesting idea. Let's play around and see what comes out of all this. Zen also allows you to create your own channel. This will be the subject of the next article. In order not to miss it, subscribe to my blog updates.