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-continue>
    <alllinks galcontinue="Charlie_Rose_(TV_series)" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
      <page ns="0" title="B:Special:Search/Sister project links" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Beethoven" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Bill Gates" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Bill Parry (mathematician)" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Bloomberg L.P." missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Board of directors" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="C-SPAN" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Call sign" missing="" />
      <page ns="0" title="Camel case" missing="" />
      <page pageid="233" ns="0" title="Backup Services" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>