Is Google about to open the Chrome Web Store?

It's been almost a month since Google gave us a good, hard look at the Chrome Web Store and Google Chrome's dev channel build has supported apps be default since early August.

For the last few days, I've been hearing reports from a number of people about 500 errors when trying to reach the Chrome Extensions Gallery. The Gallery, you might recall, is due to be re-launched as the Web Store -- at least according to chatter on the Chromium dev mailing list.

Tonight, I was trying to take a browse around the Gallery when I ran into the error message above. While that could have been caused by any number of errors, it could also point to work going on behind the scenes. A page not found error in the Gallery should be titled:

... and display the following message:

So does the fact that the Chrome Web Store branding is starting to slip through the cracks mean the grand opening is just around the corner? Surely we've got to be getting close now -- Chrome OS is due before the end of the year, and you've got to believe that Google plans on having the Web Store open in time for the launch.