YouTube URL algorithm?

Question

How would you go about generating the unique video URL\'s that YouTube uses?

Example:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvUN8qg9lsk

Answer 1

Typically you're hiding a numeric identifier in the form of something that doesn't look numeric. One simple method is something like base-36 encoding the number. You should be able to pull that off with one or another variant of itoa() in the language of your choice.