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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="MIPAV change list 1.xx" snippet="has been changed to be a singleton class, &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; that there is only one occurance of it anywhere within MIPAV. The practical upshot of this&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;" size="57606" wordcount="8728" timestamp="2009-03-25T18:43:48Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Autocorrelation Coefficients" snippet="image are exactly the same, they have different &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt;. In the original image, a given coordinate point (x,y) denotes a pixel position, while in the&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;" size="3174" wordcount="493" timestamp="2013-04-25T15:16:53Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Filters (Spatial): Coherence-Enhancing Diffusion" snippet="on a discrete grid are an ill-posed problem, &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; derivatives are overly sensitive to noise. To convert derivative operations into a well-posed&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;" size="9557" wordcount="1215" timestamp="2013-05-15T20:11:08Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Image formats descriptions" snippet="domains;  Codes to indicate data &quot;&lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt;&quot;;  A standardized way to add &quot;extension&quot; data to the header;  Dual file (hdr &amp;amp; img) or single file&lt;b&gt; ... &lt;/b&gt;" size="54849" wordcount="7655" timestamp="2014-01-13T16:40:48Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>