Techies are buzzing today about a pair of Google mini-releases: a new search engine for open source software code, and an upgrade to the little-known Google Groups.

Google Blogoscoped is all over both, with plenty of praise for the open source code. "There are existing code search engines, but this one seems to top them in terms of scope," concludes the blog.

But Blogoscoped yawns at the Groups application, which presumably takes aim at rivals Yahoo Groups: "Google Groups mixes a usenet archive with Google's homegrown discussion groups anyone can create...the relaunch looks like a good start at first, but browse around a bit and you'll see there are still many design problems."

Well, Google engineers may not get it just right at first, but you've got to give them credit for sheer output. This is a prime example of what Fortune's Adam Lashinsky recently described as Google's "spaghetti method of product development." And Lashinsky's overall conclusion is still an open question: if Google throws enough against the wall, will something eventually stick so it can grow beyond search advertising?