People have different ways of getting together. Some truly "belong" to a neighborhood: they socialize over the back fence or at the local park. Others join clubs or organizations in order to meet and converse with people who share a common interest. And some don't care about geography or interests; they just want "a place to go where everybody knows your name." Interestingly, these same patterns can be found within the Web.
Since actual geography is virtually irrelevant in Web-space, the closest thing to a neighborhood is a Web host. However, most Web hosts are more like high-rise office buildings: people go there to work, not to live, and they have little to do with the people in other offices. The exceptions are hosts which specialize in home pages created by individuals. These places often try to create an identity beyond mere URL notation, encouraging their occupants to think of themselves as a community. GeoCities is the largest such place, but not the only one -- SpiderCity and the Phrantic Project, for instance, have similar goals.
For those who want to be part of something larger than themselves, Web links provide a way to organize. Collections of links are common, of course, and categorical listings provided by Yahoo and others do show common cause. However, there are other methods. A number of sites I've visited contain Web rings: circular chains of sites connected by a specific theme or concern. Adding oneself to a ring is not difficult, and traversing it is even easier. Webring provides the organization and software to automate both operations. They support over 6000 rings at present, including the Heartland ring for residents of my GeoCities neighborhood. (A curious development, this community within a community.)
Finally, the local bar (or church social) has been emulated in cyberspace by Chat rooms. These connection points emulate a multi-person conversation, typed rather than spoken (although sound and visual effects are sometimes available). Many people seem addicted to Chat as a way to meet new friends and keep in touch with old ones. GeoCities provides Chat rooms for each neighborhood, and there is even a Web host, FreeTown, whose main activity is supporting a number of themed Chat rooms. (I have tried Chat a few times, but found it confusing. It's like being at a cocktail party with lots of people all talking at once, all at the same volume so you can't just listen to the conversation you want. And unless you're a super-fast typist and have a high-bandwidth Web connection, it's difficult to enter a conversation because no one waits for you to finish. Besides, there aren't enough hors d'oevres.)
The Web has been characterized as a global village, but it's clearly much less personal than that. No wonder its residents have found ways to get around the sheer size and complexity of the Web by recasting parts of it into familiar patterns. ("Oops, gotta go surfing. But next time you're in the neighborhood, give me a ring and we'll chat.")