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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="Tyrus&#039; Speech Impediment" snippet="....youtube.com/watch?v=eBqe5xvYnNc Michael Palin&#039;s delivery of prayer in The &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;Meaning&lt;/span&gt; Of Liff].&#10;" size="273" wordcount="46" timestamp="2013-01-29T23:53:55Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Session 18 2013-10-14" snippet="[[Landra]]: I have been &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; to ask about that. You described your becoming the Hand as a traumatic time&#10;" size="9570" wordcount="1612" timestamp="2013-10-21T10:51:50Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Session 24 2013-12-16" snippet="...of this as he spots the [[Hand of Kali]] smirking at the unintended double-&lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt;, making a  big deal about her lack of emotion.&#10;" size="10272" wordcount="1694" timestamp="2013-12-23T11:10:49Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>