I think this is one case that would benefit from a document-database solution (i.e a "NoSql" database).
If you're set on using a SQL database then @Qua's answer is probably best.
The 2nd method you mentioned would fit perfectly with the document model. I'm currently looking at implementing something similar with MongoDb, which from what I've seen essentially stores and allows easy querying of JSON objects. See this answerthis answer for some more info.
Also keep in mind, that you can have more than one type of database. I'm using SQL for stuff that fits nicely into a relational model and Mongo for stuff that doesn't.