If you'd like to register a domain name to make sure that no one else will take it, however, you haven't developed the web site for it yet, you could park it. It's a feature that registrar companies offer whenever a domain name is not connected to any web or email hosting service. This way, you are able to protect a brand name, for instance, and you'll own the domain in question even though it will not load any content. If you'd like, you may choose some standard template that the registrar provides, like For Sale or Under Construction, alternatively you can direct the domain name to a new web address. Your second option is very useful if you own a few domain names, but you want all of them to open the same website. As an example, you can 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 will be redirected to it.