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="Termin:Chaotic-Congress-Cinema Nr. 3" snippet="...orks that support Industrial Design students with electronics prototyping. &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;Meaning&lt;/span&gt;, with little technical background you can adapt these tools to your needs.&#10;" size="3442" wordcount="516" timestamp="2011-01-22T02:22:42Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>