It’s a place to hang out and meet people but without the tongue-tied introductions or awkward silences. The place, of course, is Shaker – a virtual bar located on Facebook.

Shaker is an Israeli made application that lets people use a virtual character to move around a bar and speak with other people or join existing conversations.

And it’s this year’s winner of the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield 2011.

“Shaker is a mixture of Second Life, The Sims, and Turntable.fm all mixed together using your Facebook data and connections. Your Facebook profile becomes a walking avatar, your pictures are placed on a virtual wall, you can choose what music is playing in the room for everyone to hear and you can even buy people drinks,” writes TechCrunch.

Shaker beat out 30 other start-ups to take the $50,000 Disrupt Cup prize.

Israel’s Soluto, a software download that checks PC’s boot problems, won the top trophy last year. 

Shaker has raised $3 million from Pitango Venture Capital so far, and is likely to raise more capital following the TechCrunch win.