Never heard of this cause I'm not as old as you but it seems interesting....something like precursor to web directory or something similar to Blogroll.
OK, if you use reddit:
Do you know how subreddits often link to other, related/friendly subreddits in the side bar?
That's a modern webring.
Yea I use Reddit every now and then and I saw that but Reddit is a walled garden and websites and web blogs are part of the Open Web so it's not quite the same but your analogy is right.