They were called surfers, and they were a collection of mostly 20-somethings — including a yoga lover, an ex-banker, a divinity student, a recent college grad from Ohio hungry for adventure — all hired by a start-up called Yahoo to build a directory of the world's most interesting websites.
Back in 1994, when the directory was born, search engines were rudimentary and ineffectual. Newbies were just learning how to navigate the World Wide Web. The very idea of a website was novel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/technology/when-yahoo-ruled-the-valley-stories-of-the-original-surfers.html?_r=0
Remember Janet Berg & Laisha (aka Michelle something) both beta testers for Jerry Yang ???
The switch from directory to search engine must have been rough on some of that group, particularly after Yahoo even stopped using their own search technology.
Interesting to look back and see how far we've come.
On the other hand, is it that different than the person who puts together weekly round-ups? Human-led curation is still alive and kicking, it's just much more highly segmented.