We’ve reported before about how the escalating war for talent in Silicon Valley is effectively creating a kind of arms race between tech companies.

For example, Google is offering employees a 10% pay increase for 2011; companies like About.me are getting acquired days after launch; and job postings in the IT industry are shooting to astronomical levels. Even Google’s Eric Schmidt has admitted to this battle.

Facebook, Google, Zynga and Twitter are hiring like crazy – and this insatiable desire for staff is likely to spill over into other countries. And perhaps the obvious first target outside of the Valley is London: English speaking, and a magnet for existing tech people in Europe working for US multinationals. And the latest to consider extending its reach there is Twitter.

This is a guest post by Edo van Royen (@edo), a Dutch native and co-founder of e-learning startup StudyFlow.

Over the past few years something interesting seems to be happening within the liberal confines of the capital we Dutchies refer to as Amsterdam: Amsterdam has come to be one of the most vibrant and upcoming technology hubs in Europe.

Does the fact that Amsterdam is of such liberal climate, something that has characterized the Valley, contribute to the incredible amount of new tech startups? Of the latter I’m not sure, but of one thing I am; with startups like: MynameisE, Wakoopa, Layar, Mobypicture, Twittercounter and Zaypay adorning our canals (sometimes quite literally, Mobypicture houses all its developers in a boat called the Mobyboat), Amsterdam with its rainy and cold weather, seems to entertain the perfect climate for entrepreneurs looking to find something Silicon to grow their dreams upon.

Why is this, and how has this come to be? I present TechCrunch Europe readers with 3 reasons why Amsterdam is the place to feel free and chase your dreams.

This is a guest post by Scott Allison, Founder & CEO of Teamly, a productivity and people management tool which launched in beta in July 2010.

I’m in that end-of-year mood, looking back and assessing how the last year has been for me, and one of the big decisions I’m reflecting on was my relocation in March of this year from Glasgow to London because of its promise as a startup hub. So what’s the reality? Was it worth it? And what does the future hold with the East London Tech City initiative?

After exiting my last business, abica, in October 2009, I took some time out and attended some inspirational events like the awesome Startup Bootcamp at MIT, and spent a couple of days with Zappos in Las Vegas. These experiences reinforced my goal to do something I’m passionate about, change the world for the better and create a global brand and business. I was also clear this new business was going to be a SaaS product, scalable and profitable. But where would I do it?

This is a guest post by Boris Borchert, an editor and the social media expert in the online marketing team of ImmobilenScout24. ImmobilienScout24 is the leading real estate platform in Germany with over 5 million unique users per month. He is also on the executive board of the DJV Berlin, a German journalist organisation.

We have built an incubator for startups at our company in Germany. People use all kind of communication to send us their startup ideas, but most of them land in my email in-box. I won’t go into further detail about their ideas because discreetness is our number one rule. But I am still astonished every day what people think might make me decide to choose their idea for further recognition. And I am used to getting strange mails (I once received a job application online with a blinking and smiling Christmas tree on the bottom of the page).

If I were a psychologist, I might find it interesting to study if people purposely kill their chances of getting invited to pitch because of some kind of natural fear of becoming successful. But I am not. So, instead, this is a somewhat selfish post to help save us all some time.

This is a guest post by Mike MacCana, founder of I’m Everyone, a magazine-style anonymous problem, confession and discussion site. Prior to launching the company, Mike worked as a Python programmer, and technical journalist. His first taste of startup life was in 2003 at Red Hat.

So is all this ‘Silicon Roundabout’ stuff just a bunch a of empty hype? I work in a building in Shoreditch, London commonly known as ‘Nevada Robs’, due to it being the the location of the monthly London startup poker games. The office is currently shared with two other companies – Rob’s own The Startup Toolkit and fashion retailer lyst.

I’ve been there 10 weeks, with some cash saved up from my former day job taking care of my expenses while I work on my startup. In that time, for nothing more than the cost of my desk rental (55 bucks a month), I’ve gotten the following free of charge:

Yandex, the leading Russian search engine, has acquired WebVisor, a Russian startup, after holding an “open day for startups” to pitch the search company. WebVisor provides visitor behavior analysis (mouse movement, clicks, text copying etc.) and will be integrated with the company’s own visitor statistics tool, Yandex.Metrica. Terms were not disclosed.

Yandex says the WebVisor team has joined the company to work on merging their technology into its own framework. WebVisor will keep servicing existing clients, but the service will not accept new customers going forward.

It’s cold out and the flight cancelations all over Europe are getting many of us. It’s amazing how much nature can impact business. So IMASTE, Spanish startup with a “virtual exhibition” solution hopes to bank on making events actually accessible. Today they release imastebox 2.0 (demo), a public beta of a complete upgrade to their platform. The new version boasts a complete visual make-over and integrates new features. With the upgrade, IMASTE hopes to break out of Europea and compete directly with large, venture capital backed U.S. players, including Unisfair, Inexpo and 6connex.

One of the startups on stage and in the demo pit at Le Web was Tinypay.me. Billing itself as the easiest way to sell stuff, you just fill a form for an item you want to sell and start selling. The page generated can be shared across social platforms and embeded into web sites. No account is needed as all the management is done through your e-mail and payments are handled by PayPal.

Now, this reminds me of Shoply, except you don’t need to create a full shop.

I don’t think Tinypay.me is necessarily a world beater, but as an attempt to create a sort of Twitter for Ecommerce, it’s interesting. And who can resist a founder who’s job title is Commercial Hippie.

Alena Popova, is a former TV journalist who got into Web 2.0 a while back and is now a specialist in “Government 2.0″. She is also a venture investor in a social shopping startup in Russia and startup adviser.

We chatted about the startup scene and Russia’s Skolovo project to create a Silicon Valley in Russia. She’s also working on generating greater awareness of e-government in Russia and helped establish the project Duma 2.0 in Moscow. At the recent TechCrunch Moscow event I talked to her about empowering ordinary citizens in Russia through Government 2.0 platforms – especially important in a developing economy like Russia’s where officialdom can often disappoint – and the startup scene in Russia.

Oh man, it’s going to be hard not to let my feminist side shine through writing about this topic, but I’ll try my best! Ladieshoesme is a brand new French dating site, launched officially on December 13th, where ladies pick a man as if he were a pair of shoes…literally.

Members essentially have to identify themselves as a pair of shoes on the platform. That means, when you create your profile, you also have to include a picture of your favorite pair of shoes. Don’t have one? Not to worry, the site has a selection you can choose from. Plus, you have to also include some information in your profile regarding shoes and feet – like “For me, shoes are…(fill in)” or “What I really hate to see on someone’s feet is…(fill in).” It’s kind of silly and kind of fun, but does this whole expressing yourself via shoes business really change that much?

Groupalia, a Spanish group buying site, has announced $3 million in revenues for December alone with the numbers of users now standing at 4 million across the six countries where it operates (Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile).

Previously its stated goals for 2010 was to attract 2 million users and reach turnover of 5 million euros. But overall it’s closed 2010 with a turnover of $8 million. It started operating just 8 months ago.

It recently raised a funding round last October.

Madvertise, the Berlin-based mobile ad network, has added location-based targeting to its array of options – a first in Germany, claims the company.

Advertisers can now reach customers based on their exact GPS location, city, region or state. This is in addition to existing targeting such as channels, carriers, operating systems and devices, which, says madvertise, allows for relatively accurate targeting in respect to age, sex and income level.

Its location-based mobile ads rely on apps that are already polling GPS as part of their functionality. However, where GPS data isn’t captured, madvertise’s system falls back on other “localization algorithms” to determine a user’s position, which we presume is a mix of IP address and/or cell positioning.

Madvertise has also announced that it’s rolling out its next generation of mobile ads, which include support for rich media. A few other updates:

Breaking: Skype appears to have has gone down. We’re trying to ascertain why and get comment from the company. However, as of this moment Skype is not working for millions of users, and the angst is playing out on Twitter right now.

Of course what’s so funny is that so many of us now use Twitter DM (direct message) and perhaps even Facebook IM as a sort of alternative “Skype-a-like” IM platform that there are now potential alternatives. It looks like for now that Skype has huge issues though – and it’s coming at a delicate time for the company as it tries to forge path independent from former owner eBay.

Holidays and whatnot are pretty much about 3 things: delicious food, canceled flights (especially if you’re in Western Europe) and spending time with loved ones…right? And while the weather may be complicating the situation for some, social networks may be here to help (thank Zuckerberg). But don’t just go along writing “I miss you blah blah blah” on the Facebook wall of your sweetheart, get a bit creative !

Now I realize that there are a number of couples that don’t like to display their relationships on Facebook – but for the rest of you, here are a few examples of how couples used social networks in a very special way.

If you have an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, chances are you have at least one “Talking Friends” app on your favorite device, especially if you have kids. Which is it? Tom Cat? Santa? Roby the Robot? Rex the Dinosaur? Harry the Hedgehog? Or is it Bacteria John?

Kids may abolsutely adore those quirky apps, but apparently building and selling them is quite a solid business to boot.

Outfit7, the company behind the ‘Talking Friends’ series of apps for iOS and Android, says it has reached 41 million downloads in less than six months since the first app was released. The download rate is accelerating at 10 million a month and the company’s CEO, Andrej Nabergoj, tells me they expect to hit 100 million downloads by the second quarter of 2011.

Sweden-based Ericsson has agreed to acquire Spanish telecommunications vendor Optimi, which provides networks optimization and management solutions to a diverse set of clients in the telecom space.

For Ericsson, the acquisition is a way to broaden the customer base for its multi-vendor network management and optimization business.

(Or why Google TV should have launched in Europe first)

This is a guest post by Tom Weiss, CEO of TV Genius, the company he founded four years ago to solve the growing challenge of content search and discovery in the TV space.

The USA is known as the best place for start-ups and entrepreneurs, but there are many reasons that Europe is a better place for a TV start-up. Here are my top five:

1. The US cable operators

The US is dominated by a handful of cable operators that have historically operated in a monopoly market. These firms can be slow to move, and typically develop technology platforms in-house. They stand to lose a lot from innovation, and are currently focused on defending their existing market positions.

Last night we received news of what today is now official: After three years in Spain, the European business social network Xing is waving goodbye and puling operations back to its German headquarters, which now becomes its sole base. The same applies in regard to Turkey. While at first glance the news may come as a surprise, many say that they saw it coming, with little activity generated by Spanish users. All of this while competitor LinkedIn is growing its European presence.

Berlin-based social games startup Wooga is rapidly turning into the Zynga for Europe. Its latest social game on Facebook, Happy Hospital now has one million players. And its Monster World and Bubble Island games both now have one million Daily Active Users each.

These bring wooga in a line with Zynga and EA/Playfish – the only developers with more then one game over one million daily players.

At Le Web I caught up with CEO Jens Begemann who told me about their growth so far and the tech scene in Berlin.