Given that people think of their online communities using analogies form the physical world – that is, we think of web sites as "places" which we "visit" – it isn't surprising that a number of interesting maps of the web have emerged.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• The xkcd Map of Online Communities. Watch out for the Viral Straits, and don't get lost in the Noob Sea.
• Information Architects Japan's visualization of web trends mapped onto the Tokyo Subway. (And some people find Boston's four public transit lines confusing).
• Steven Hilton's map of the Software Wars between the Empire of Microsoft and various Free and Open Source challengers

We're not liable, of course, if you attempt to use any of these maps to navigate.