It’s alive: Windows 8 site detection helps you to find apps for the site you’re visiting

If you’re using a Windows Phone you know that some sites have enabled browser detection and they give you a popup or redirect you to a link to their app. In fact, our forums do it through a script.  In Windows 8, the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10 has a feature that can be enabled to quickly help you see that there’s an app for the site. There’s a wrench icon for options at the bottom. If there’s a plus sign shown on the wrench then you know that by pressing the wrench a normally greyed out option “Get app for this site” is enabled. Of course, pressing that then launches the Marketplace for that app. If you’re using IE10 now, head over to WordPress.com and you’ll see the wrench icon change.  However, other sites that have apps (like MSNBC, WikiPedia, USAToday and AllRecipes) fail to detect the Win8 apps so it needs to be scripted.

While this is something we heard about a while back, it’s not something that I’ve seen in the wild and  its appearance has changed (if the old style comes back it is a small popup in the corner). If you run a site and are planning on a Win8 app, the detection code is here.

But now we know that at least some sites are using site detection to test for app exploration in Windows 8.

Thanks for the tip @WinsRUs