If you want to register a domain name to ensure that no one else is going to take it, however, you haven't built the web site for it yet, you may park it. This is a service that registrar companies provide whenever a domain isn't connected to any web or e-mail hosting service. That way, you can protect a brand name, for instance, and you will own the domain in question although it will not open any content. If you'd like, you can select some standard template that the registrar offers, such as For Sale or Under Construction, or you can direct the domain to an alternative web address. Your second option is very helpful if you own a few domain names, but you want every one of them to open the same website. For example, you could register domain.net and domain.org, then park them and direct them to domain.com. In this example, you'll need hosting for the third domain name only and the traffic to the other ones is going to be redirected to it.