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="Guaranteed payday loans" snippet="...gthy paperwork, and exhibiting credit historical past and pledging assets. &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;Meaning&lt;/span&gt; of the unsecured is that you do not have to bestow any security as you do n&#10;" size="2569" wordcount="439" timestamp="2011-07-04T10:47:27Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>