There is a third-party website for viewing Windows Store applications for Windows 8

While Microsoft is creating web pages for every Windows 8 application appearing in the Windows Store, the company has still not provided a way to view a selection of applications through the browser. To do this, now you need to use the Windows Store application from Windows 8, and even it is limited to the set of applications available for your country.

Today there is news that a third-party developer has created something that Microsoft so far prefers not to show to the general public. The MetroStore Scanner website allows everyone, not even Windows 8 users, to see all the Windows Store applications. It also allows you to search for any applications created for any region in which Windows 8 is sold today.

The website shows that at the moment (December 3) in the Windows Store there are 25,539 Windows 8 apps. A report two weeks ago from another source indicated that the Windows Store overcame the threshold of 20,000 applications for Windows 8.
')
On the site you can also search by category and by country. In addition to this, the service allows users to search for applications that have been recently updated. Although the site shows links to each page with a description of the Windows 8 application, it does not allow to download them.

You still need Windows 8 itself to buy and download the app. However, the very opportunity to see the current selection of applications for Windows 8 will be useful for many people as long as Microsoft itself does not provide a similar way for this.