A parked domain name is one which is taken, yet it is not associated with some other service - web or e mail hosting. Put simply, such a domain will not open any actual content when you type it in a web browser, but nobody can take it as you've already registered it and you are its owner. The main advantage of getting a domain and parking it afterwards is that you will be able to keep it and not worry that somebody else may register it meanwhile if, for instance, the website for it is not ready yet. You may set a temporary Under Construction website page for a parked domain address while you are working on the web site, or direct it to another web address - temporarily or permanently. The second option can be used when you have already registered domain.com, for instance, and you get domain.net and domain.org, in order to protect a brand name or a trademark. In this case, the .net and .org domain names can be parked and directed to the .com because you do not need individual sites for them.