I always begin to think the same thing, but then they open source a new project that is hosted on Google Code.

I wondered if Google's internal development infrastructure looks like or hooks into Google Code, making it easy to release code publicly on Google Code.

Not really... it's about the same amount of work whether it goes to Google Code or GitHub. The teams that have an easier time of it are those that are using Git+Gerrit internally, since a public release is as simple as `git remote add` and `git push`. A number of teams continue to use tools like https://code.google.com/p/make-open-easy/ with varying degrees of success.

@hobofan: I think it's because they don't have any other choice when it comes to a public repo they can throw things up on.

I agree with @ceejayoz -- Google Code will be killed off ala Google Reader.

Which is a real shame because if they updated it properly they could be a real competitor to Github or Bitbucket and there's plenty of opportunities to add really simple integration to GAE or Compute.