You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query>
    <search>
      <p ns="0" title="Esmer" snippet="...= people from Emerald Moon). But despite better knowing it has evolved to &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; Zeelichians, as even [[FunFrock]], knowing their origins from the first tim&#10;" size="4658" wordcount="673" timestamp="2012-12-27T22:21:36Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Can of Gazogem" snippet="The name &amp;quot;gazogem&amp;quot; derives from the French term &amp;quot;gaz au gemmes&amp;quot;, &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; &amp;quot;made of gems&amp;quot;.&#10;" size="1723" wordcount="279" timestamp="2013-01-10T22:59:51Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>