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="Higher Dimensions" snippet="in school. Students want to understand the meaning of a four-, five or even&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;*get a first insight into the meaning of higher dimensions in science;&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;" size="124312" wordcount="19057" timestamp="2016-05-17T13:14:29Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>