h() is also useful for escaping quotes.
For example, I have a view that generates a link using a text field result[r].thtitle. The text could include single quotes. If I didn't escape result[r].thtitle in the confirm method, the Javascript would break:
<%= link_to_remote "#{result[r].thtitle}", :url=>{ :controller=>:resource,
:action =>:delete_resourced,
:id => result[r].id,
:th => thread,
:html =>{:title=> "<= Remove"},
:confirm => h("#{result[r].thtitle} will be removed"),
:method => :delete %>
<a href="#" οnclick="if (confirm('docs: add column 'dummy' will be removed')) { new Ajax.Request('/resource/delete_resourced/837?owner=386&th=511', {asynchronous:true, evalScripts:true, method:'delete', parameters:'authenticity_token=' + encodeURIComponent('ou812')}); }; return false;" title="<= Remove">docs: add column 'dummy'
Note: the :html title declaration is magically escaped by Rails.