Online ads on a tear

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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Spending on internet ads is way up. The Interactive Advertising Bureau says first-quarter spending was up a whopping 38 percent over the same time last year. Marketplace’s Lisa Napoli has more:

LISA NAPOLI: The most telling number in the study is that online ad spending in this first quarter rose to a record $4 billion — up 6 percent over the fourth quarter.

Usually in the ad world, the first quarter is not as strong, because sales flatten after the holiday advertising blitz.

But Kate Kaye of ClickZ News says the Internet’s not like other media:

KATE KAYE: The way the interactive ad market has been the last couple of years, anyway, it’s been on an upward turn. It’s just, I think, the natural progression.

Consider that in 2005, online ads had swelled to a $12.5 billion industry. While in 1997 online ad spending totaled only just $1 billion.

In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.