Seed and early stage investing jumped to new heights in the second quarter, and Internet fever appears to be the cause.

Venture capitalists put money into 464 seed and early stage startups during the period, accounting for 48% of all deals, according to the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of this blog). Not since the third quarter of 1999 has this level of early stage activity been reached.

Excitement over social media and Web 2.0 startups seems to have lit the investment fires. As you have read in these columns, Internet investing fanned the quarter’s flames in general.

Internet-related startups attracted almost a third of dollars invested and the activity set a mark as the largest quarter for the amount of capital invested in Internet-related companies since the dot-com bubble was collapsing in the second quarter of 2001. Dollars going to Internet startups rose 72% from the first quarter of this year, while deal volume climbed 46%, reinforcing the sense that another bubble is forming.

Seed and early stage investments jumped 24% in dollars and deals from the first quarter, when 46% of transactions were of this ilk, the MoneyTree Report found.

The average seed deal was $3.2 million, up from $1.8 million in the first quarter. The average early stage deal was $5.8 million, which was down slightly from $6 million from Q1.

Venture investors seem to be looking beyond the past couple years, when they spent a lot of time and effort focused on their portfolios, separating the companies that were going to survive from those that weren’t, says Lynn-Ann Gries, chief investment officer at JumpStart Ventures, an early stage investor.

Now VCs are looking ahead to new opportunities. What follows are several slides looking at the recent trends in seed, early, expansion and late stage investing.