A parked domain name is one which is taken, yet it is not connected to any other service - web or email hosting. Put simply, such a domain address will not load any actual content if you type it in an Internet browser, but no one else can take it as you have already registered it and you are its owner. The main advantage of getting a domain and parking it afterwards is the fact that you will be able to keep it and not stress that somebody else might register it in the meantime if, for instance, the site for it is not ready yet. You can set a short-term Under Construction website page for a parked domain address while you're working on the website, or forward it to some other web address - temporarily or permanently. The latter option can be used when you have already registered domain.com, for example, and you acquire domain.net and domain.org, in order to protect a brand name or a trademark. In this case, the .net and .org domain addresses can be parked and directed to the .com because you don't need different sites for them.