Despite upcoming IPO, people like Microsoft much more than they do Facebook

Facebook gets all the publicity, but when it comes down to what company people really like, Microsoft leads Facebook by a wide margin, as do Apple and Google. That's according to a just-released AP-CNBC poll.

The telephone poll of 1,004 people found that 71% of people had a favorable impression of Microsoft, Apple, and Google, compared to 51% of people who had favorable impressions of Facebook. Facebook also had higher unfavorability ratings -- 23% compared to 8% for Google, 8% for Apple, and 7% for Microsoft.

Twitter, meanwhile, was far behind Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, with 27% with favorable impressions, and 27% with unfavorable impressions.

The survey broke down people's impressions of Facebook by age, and not surprisingly, younger people had much more favorable impressions of it than older people, with 28% percent of senior citizens holding a favorable impression of Facebook, compared to 71 percent of people under 35. No similar breakouts were provided for Microsoft, Apple, and Google.

The poll is a reminder that it's easy to get caught up in hype, especially those who live in insular tech bubbles. While inside some parts of the tech world Microsoft's reputation is regularly trashed, and Facebook treated as a darling, that's not how it is out in the greater world. And no matter how Facebook's IPO goes, it will stay that way for quite some time.

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