During an interview at a TechCrunch’s Le Web Conference yesterday, Google Vice President Marissa Meyer revealed that Chrome will be coming out of beta in the near future.

Chrome, Google’s open source browser based on Webkit, was introduced to the public in September via a comic book by Scott McLeod. The beta version has gained some market share, pulling ahead of Netscape and Opera, but Internet Explorer remains dominant with just over 70% of the market. However, with Firefox gaining popularity and Mac owners switching to Safari, users seem to be more open than ever to the idea of exploring alternative browsers. Google hopes to capitalize on this trend.

The release of Chrome v1.0 will mark Google’s formal bid to compete in the web browser battle (and receive a nod from the technology press for bringing a Google product out of beta). Despite Google having pushed the boundaries of the term “beta” with many of their web apps still classified as such, companies may be waiting for Chrome to be fully released as a polished product. Now they won’t have to wait much longer.

Some of Chrome’s features include: User interface with tabs above the browser window Tabs run on their own process for more stable browsing Homepage that displays the sites you visit most frequently Constantly updated phishing and malware lists for your protection Privacy mode where you can browse without recorded activity Offline component to access Office apps without the Internet Faster JavaScript engine

In a post on Google’s Official Blog this morning, Google’s VP of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, says that although Chrome’s beta label will be shed, “our goals for stability and performance have been met but our work is far from done.”