Yes, it was called Yahoo and it did a good job of cataloging the internet when hundreds of sites were added per week: https://web.archive.org/web/19961227005023/http://www2.yahoo...

I'm old enough to remember sorting sites by new to see what new URLs were being created, and getting to that bottom of that list within a few minutes. Google and search was a natural response to solving that problem as the number of sites added to the internet grew exponentially...meaning we need search.

The Web is too big for a single large directory - but a network of small directories seems promising. (Supported by link-sharing sites like Pinboard and HN.)