JoeAnt is a human edited directory offering "to provide a directory of quality sites for Internet users".
Created by a group of a dozen former Go.com (Disney) volunteer Go Guides, JoeAnt was born of the desire to provide relevant results in a wide variety of topics, and seeks to work by forming a 'community' of editors where anyone interested can join in.
Launched on May 24, 2001, JoeAnt has grown into a big directory with a large editor list. The site was built from the ground up by Jerry David without relying on other programming or scripts. Another founding member of JoeAnt is Mary Beth Buckner who oversees such parts of the directory as creating the guidelines, coordinating the work of the staff editors, and resolving disputes. The other founding members are Yvette, Gloria Craney (died on April 9, 2008), and Hugo Vogels.
The site was re-launched in August 2002 following an extensive site rebuild that recreated the back-end to enable the directory to be indexed by search engine spiders, while adding several new tools for editors, and improving the performance of the search engine.
Additions can be made in two ways. Listings can be paid for by website owners, with no guarantee of being listed. Listings can also be added by volunteer editors.
Volunteer editors are registered automatically and do not have to go through a review process. The sites they submit go to a higher-level editor regardless of topic. This allows the submitter to get a quick review of the site without the likelihood that the reviewer is a competitor.