I honestly don’t know what took Microsoft so long, but believe it or not, until now Microsoft did not officially provide a way to search the Windows 8 App Store from your web browser. It is in contrast to every other app store model, including Microsoft’s own Windows Phone Store! But you can finally browse the Windows Store from your browser. Visit this site to get started.

You could browse and search the iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone app stores directly from your web browser. But in the case of Windows Store, you had to use the Store app from Windows 8. If you didn’t have Windows 8, well, then you are out of luck. Of course, there are third party sites that attempt to solve this issue, such as MetroStoreScanner.

Frustratingly, Microsoft still does not provide a way to browse the Windows Store from the web browser. You can only search as of now. But it is a start. I thank Allah (God), and Microsoft, that it finally arrived.

Okay, so here it is. Visit this page and you will be able to search for apps in the Windows Store by typing their name or keywords. If the query doesn’t yield apps, make sure “Apps” is selected on the left sidebar, and not “This Site”.

Go ahead and try it!