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>
    <searchinfo totalhits="1" />
    <search>
      <p ns="0" title="The True Meaning of War" snippet="...ests|Weekly PvP Quest chain]] given by [[Lord Shaxx]]. Completing The True &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;Meaning&lt;/span&gt; of War grants the player [[Nightfall]] tier rewards ([[Light]] 335 Gear).&#10;" size="807" wordcount="114" timestamp="2016-04-15T12:58:41Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>