Patent ID: 7853655

Claim:
A method for generating personalized RSS feeds, the method being performed by an RSS catcher device and comprising the steps of: creating a plurality of generic RSS based files; receiving generic content items pushed from a plurality of content sources, identifying each of the received generic content items as associated with one or more of the created generic RSS based files; archiving the identified generic content items into the associated generic RSS based files; subsequent to archiving the identified generic content items into the associated generic RSS based files, receiving a subscription request from a particular user for a personalized RSS based file that is personalized for the particular user; creating the personalized RSS based file for the particular user; and pre-populating the personalized RSS based file by copying the archived generic content items from one of the one or more generic RSS based files into the personalized RSS based file thereby creating a personalized feed that is populated from its inception; subsequently to creating the personalized RSS based file, receiving a pushed directed content item that is specifically directed towards the particular user by way of an address identifier of the particular user being included in the pushed directed content item; in response to receiving the pushed directed content item, examining the personalized RSS based file to identify at least a subset of content items contained therein as expired items; deleting the identified expired items from the personalized RSS based file; and adding the pushed content item directed towards the particular user to the personalized RSS based file thereby ensuring that the personalized RSS based file is never empty.