We already have such a thing. It's called Wikipedia. And I have the option of seeking out the info instead of having it bombard my senses. Sure, augmented reality could have some really cool bonuses, but have you ever stopped to think what advertisers will do with this technology? If augmented reality really becomes the norm - as you predict - then my whole life will look like a bad mySpace page with ads all around me.

P-Worm
Yikes. That certainly SOUNDS horrible, although I can't imagine why any logical person would want to use a product that turns the world into a myspace page.
No... this is simply natural evolution. It is the "visual search". Instead of typing anything into the computer/mobile device... all you need to do is look THROUGH you're mobile device instead. Want to know one of the cooler applications? Well, I was house hunting yesterday... walking around... and using the Zillow application. I found it remarkeable that it's updated software let's me walk around and track my movement walking down the street, while it brings up housing prices all around me. The one irksome bit, was having to tap on each house market in an effort to find out which number it was... then staring at the houses to read the numbers on the doors.
How much easier won't it be, when we can simply look through our devices, and see floating house prices (and whether each house is for sale, or accepting offers), as you are looking at the property... or glancing to the next one... or the one over there? Honestly, I'm just happy where things are NOW, but adding AR to property searching? Simply genius.
Last night it was a bit dark and making out house numbers would have been so much easier if I was using mapping software that literally told me the housing numbers with a floating 3-D number.
Another thing Augmented Reality does... is it EXPANDS the screen realestate, by using a virtual canvas. For instance, Google requires you to "tap" on a pin in "Google Maps". But, if you are moving the camera view around, you can afford to have all the data from a specific location immediately visible. So, for instance, instead of looking for businesses nearby to get the phone number of the company located directly in front of you... just look at the building through AR, and you'll see the number you can TAP and immediately call. This is especially useful if you're a passenger in a car, stopped at a light, and you want to order take-out from a restaurant you're passing. Just look at it through the view finder. No typing required. Tap the number, and you're calling someone without even typing or speaking your desire. Doesn't get better than that.
--At least not until they stick a chip in your head (which probably isn't a lot of fun).
~ CB