Time to analyze what happened last week in Paris, where 2,000 people attended the largest European conference on Web 2.0, LeWeb3. We could all hear the word "social" everywhere, specially associated with network. Social networks are the new buzz words. Everything has to be social. At the same time, Google almost disappeared from the conference, though it was one of the main sponsors.

Google has to accept that Facebook is more à la mode now and that OpenSocial sounds great but is not yet a reality. Google can not live out of standards. It needs to do something else if it does not want to lose the social war. Its main product during this year has been Google Apps, which is great but is not as popular as the things that Google has done before. Anyway, Office 2.0 applications probably need their own event.

These are the most interesting thoughts I have had after the conference:
– People don’t know yet how to make money out of social networks. Monetisation was one of the most popular panels.
– There are some clues to web projects which are alive from year to year: be simple (thanks Evan Williams!) and respect people (thanks Calacanis!)
– Telefónica is finally doing something on Web 2.0. Social networks don’t just attract media’s attention any more. It is an all business thing. Next year we will talk a lot about Business 2.0.
– Local politicians were not there (!). The focus of the conference was this time on international politics, whichi seems more appropriate. But I am still not sure that bloggers at these conferences really want to change the world. They seem to me to be more business-oriented than anything.
– Videos are not a plus for your site. They are a must. Every single site should use videos.
– Spain was so well represented by Martín Varsavsky! He is a wonderful ambassador. The Government should really thank him for what he is doing to place Spain in the map of the world economy.
– Netvibes is not doing well. Its model is dead, as Facebook has the same tools and many more. There are lots of rumours about what is going on with Netvibes and the fact that free drinks stopped at its party after 12 was not a good sympton.
– Second Life is also dead. Social videogames is the new buzz.
– Another interesting area that is opening up is the application of Web 2.0 to e-commerce. We will see fantastic shops on Facebook in the next months. And there are very interesting small shops being launched, like MyDeco.com (by Brent Horberman, Lastminute’s founder).