It looks like 3D models.

You can see the models through google maps on the normal web interface. If you go to a city, zoom in so your screen is a few blocks across and select "3D" view from the lower right corner. It should load 3D models of the buildings. Then if you hold Control which clicking and dragging, you should be able to freely rotate your view around the map's center point and see the buildings from any angle.

EDIT: and I should mention, it works all over the place, not just cities, i.e.: https://www.google.ca/maps/@41.0775591,-71.9351097,67a,20y,2...

Online demo is just 360 photos but real VR application seems to be fully 3D (from the videos).

This would make sense as it's based on Google Earth which is 3D.

Even WebGL web version of Google Maps is already 3D since some time ago. See e.g. Colosseum here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Colosseum/@41.8950247,12.4...

Saying something is 3D is meaningless. 3D video is one thing, 3D models are totally different.

From what I saw in demo, it looks like they are generating simple 3D models from the photos. Which is pretty damn cool!

Google Earth already has thousands of handmade 3D models, as well as auto generated models.

Here is an interesting quora on where Google Earth sources their models from: https://www.quora.com/How-are-the-3D-models-of-buildings-gen...

It's 3D model, streaming download as you move around.