[mistercow]

Actually, that's not because of the ASCII, but because of the GSVPano.js demo that it's based on: http://www.clicktorelease.com/code/street/

Pick a location and compare it to the standard street view on google maps, and you'll notice a similar "more 3D" appearance.

The reason is that it's using three.js to map the panorama onto a spherical geometry. This is actually quite an old trick used to give a more immersive feel to panorama viewers dating at least back to the days of QTVR.