A parked domain is one that's taken, but it's not linked to some other service - web or e-mail hosting. Basically, such a domain name won't open any real content in case you type it inside an Internet browser, but no one else can take it as you have already registered it and you are its owner. The benefit of getting a domain and parking it afterwards is that you’re able to keep it and not worry that someone else may register it meanwhile if, for example, the site for it is not ready yet. You could create a short-term Under Construction website page for a parked domain name while you are working on your web site, or forward it to some other web address - temporarily or permanently. The latter option can be employed when you have already registered domain.com, for instance, and you obtain domain.net and domain.org, so that you can protect a brand name or a trademark. In cases like this, the .net and .org domain names can be parked and directed to the .com because you do not need individual sites for them.