Google had hoped to launch the Chrome Web Store in October, but is reported to be delayed as Chrome 8 is needed to support the web store.
“Chrome 8 is the first version that supports the Chrome Web Store,” mentions a Google Chrome engineer. There’s already a new icon for the store in Chromium and this should be the final icon.
Google say “Google Chrome 7 was launched on October 21, almost 6 weeks ago, so Chrome 8 and Chrome Web Store should be available this week.”