Nearly half of the 1,000 people surveyed in America by news agencies AP and CNBC were of the opinion that the social network Facebook was just another passing fad, even as the remaining half felt the asking price of its initial public offer was too high.

However, more than half of the people felt Facebook as a good investment option although 17 per cent had no idea of the company's working after it goes public.

The report comes after Facebook announced a hike in the price band of its IPO to $34-$38 from $28-$35, which raises the expected sale proceeds at the upper end to about $12.8 billion.

Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, which boasts of a 900 million subscriber base, raised the offer price of its IPO following a rush for it shares. But many of the investing majors, including iconic investor Warren Buffet, are keeping off the IPO.

Yet, the survey found that a majority (51 per cent) of those polled have a favorable opinion about the company, while 23 per cent felt nothing in favour of Facebook as an investment option.

Half of those polled were neutral as they had never heard of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg while over a third of those polled see him in a favorable light and 14 per cent have an unfavorable opinion about him.

About 42 per cent of active investors have a good impression about Zukerberg, while 14 per cent have negative opinion, the report said.

The survey of 1,004 persons, conducted over the phone between 3 and 7 May, revealed that a mere 13 per cent of the people trusted Facebook to keep their personal information private. About 59 per cent said they have little or no faith in the company's privacy policy.

Nearly 25 per cent of those polled said they don't even use Facebook because of privacy concerns.