Ask HN: Is there a scope of DIRECTORY of internet?

I'm just wondering that like early days of internet when sites on internet were on a meta-lists/portals, if there is a scoope of portals like that. A modern version can solve problem in following ways:

For example - a person wants to learn to program and he wants to have a list of nice/proven programming online tutorials. OR a person wants to get information about best bookmarking or file storing utilities.

Then a list would emerge based on the data from google( may be +1 button), facebook likes, alexa ranking of the site and many more. The question is can they help people in going to the best websites?