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="Cybernetics" snippet="The term cybernetics stems from the Greek &amp;quot;kybernetes&amp;quot; &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; rudder or pilot. The Latin cognate &amp;quot;gubernator&amp;quot; is the origin of the Englis&#10;...ms using feedback &amp;quot;[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleology teleological],&amp;quot; &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; that such systems aim towards specific goals, and thus require feedback to &#10;" size="3983" wordcount="565" timestamp="2009-06-26T14:30:23Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>