A parked Internet domain is one that is taken, but it is not linked to some other service - web or e-mail hosting. In other words, this kind of domain won't open any real content when you type it in a browser, but no one can take it as you've already registered it and you are its owner. The benefit of acquiring a domain name and parking it afterwards is that you will be able to keep it and not stress that someone else may register it in the meantime if, for instance, the website for it is not ready yet. You could set a short-term Under Construction website page for a parked domain while you're working on your website, or forward it to another web address - temporarily or permanently. The second option can be employed when you have already registered domain.com, for example, and you obtain domain.net and domain.org, so as to protect a brand name or a trademark. In such a case, the .net and .org domain addresses can be parked and forwarded to the .com because you don't need separate sites for them.