Find yourself on the wrong side of the ocean (or border) from a U.S.-only YouTube video? Don't want to log in to glimpse a clip that might have content that's "inappropriate for some users"? Both are fairly easy to get around by slightly altering the video's URL, according to the Google Operating System Blog. Most YouTube URLs take the form of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEOID
Note the 11-character code at the end, and place it like so:
http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEOID
The swift move brings up the widget normally used to play embedded videos—a bit over-sized, sometimes, but nicely distraction-free as well.
Watch restricted YouTube Videos [Google Operating System]