A parked domain address is one that is taken, however it's not linked to another service - web or e mail hosting. Put simply, such a domain name will not load any actual content in case you type it in a browser, but nobody else can take it as you have already registered it and you are its owner. The main advantage of obtaining a domain name and parking it afterwards is that you are able to keep it and not stress that somebody else might register it meanwhile if, for instance, the site for it is not ready yet. You could create a short-term Under Construction website page for a parked domain while you are working on your web site, or direct it to some other web address - temporarily or permanently. The second 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 such a case, the .net and .org domain addresses can be parked and forwarded to the .com as you do not need separate sites for them.