Internet metaphors

Metaphors have been used to establish the Internet as something 'real' by trying to explain what it 'looks like' in an effort to overcome the problems of the invisibility and intangibility of the Internet as an infrastructure.  Case with Internet was that there was high uncertainty, unclear goals, and poorly understood parameters that could only be conceptualized with clever metaphors. Metaphors of the Internet are a counter-example to the traditional definition of metaphor which is seen as a secondary way of giving a name to reality. As far as the Internet is concerned it can only be designated metaphorically as no literal expressions exist.