While Microsoft does establish web pages for each Windows 8 app that are launched from the Windows Store, the company has yet to offer a way for anyone to browse the selections in the Windows Store in a web browser format. You have to use the Windows Store feature in Windows 8 for that purpose, and even that is limited to the apps for the particular country of each Windows 8 user.
Today, there"s word that a third-party group has created something that Microsoft has chosen, at least for now, not to offer the public. The MetroStore Scanner website allows anyone, even non Windows 8 users, to see which apps are in the Windows Store via one large database. It also allows anyone to search for any app made for any or all of the markets that Windows 8 is currently available for sale.
The website shows that, at the moment, there are 25,539 Windows 8 apps in the store. A report from another third-party site made about two weeks ago claimed that the store had exceeded the 20,000 Windows 8 app milestone.
You can also search for apps by category type and country with the MetroStore Scanner site. In addition, the service lets users search for any apps that have been recently updated. While the site offers links to each Windows 8 app description page, it does not actually offer downloads for those apps.
You still need Windows 8 itself to pay and/or download the apps. Still, having a web-based way to browse the current selection of apps for Windows 8 is something that will come in handy for many people and we hope Microsoft offers up their own similar solution in the near future.
Source: MetroStore Scanner via: McAkins Online