Online advertising climbed up with 38% in the first quarter of 2006 as advertisers redirected dollars to target consumers on the Web, an industry report said this week.

Companies set a new record as they laid out $3.9 billion in internet advertising in the January-March period. This year businesses overspended their last year’s advertising budgets by $1.1 billion to mark one of the best years for online advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the dollar amount marketers spent in the first three months of 2006 represents 80% of the dollars spent during all of 1999 – the bubble years of the Internet era.

According to PricewaterhouseCooper’s senior executive the consumer habits are continuing to change and mature. He said that companies are effectively learning to devote more advertising money to fast-growing internet market in order to reach the right audience at the right time.”

If the rest of 2006 continues at this pace, it would be the fourth straight year of annual growth for online advertising. The market marked its first year of growthin 2002, when $6 billion was spent on Internet advertising and marketing. Businesses spent $7.2 billion in 2003, $9.6 billion in 2004, and $12.5 billion in 2005.