Patent ID: 7392306

Claim:
A method of providing users with alert messages, the method comprising: monitoring receipt of a plurality of alert feeds broadcast from one or more remote servers, the plurality of alert feeds including a group of user-specific alert feeds that are each associated with an event specific to a particular user and a group of general alert feeds that are each associated with an event related to multiple users; receiving information indicating that a user has requested to receive an alert message when receipt of a particular alert feed is detected; receiving an alert feed from a remote server included in the one or more remote servers, the alert feed being one of the monitored plurality of alert feeds; determining whether the received alert feed corresponds to an alert feed in the group of user-specific alert feeds or an alert feed in the group of general alert feeds; conditioned on the received alert feed corresponding to an alert feed in the group of user-specific alert feeds: determining that a specific user associated with the received alert feed is the user; identifying a first electronic device assigned to process alerts associated with the user; providing information based on the received alert feed to the first electronic device assigned to process alerts associated with the user, and determining, using the first electronic device, whether the received alert feed is the particular alert feed based on the information provided to the first electronic device; conditioned on the received alert feed corresponding to an alert feed in the group of general alert feeds: providing information based on the received alert feed to a second electronic device assigned to process alerts associated with general alert feeds, the second electronic device being different from the first electronic device, and determining, using the second electronic device, whether the received alert feed is the particular alert feed based on the information provided to the second electronic device; and providing the user with an alert message associated with the received alert feed conditioned on determining that the received alert feed is the particular alert feed.