If you want to register a domain to make sure that no one else will take it, however, you haven't created the web site for it yet, you can park it. That is a feature that registrar companies provide whenever a domain isn't connected to any web or e-mail hosting service. That way, you'll be able to protect a brand name, for example, and you'll own the domain name in question even though it will not open any content. If you want, you may choose some standard template that the registrar offers, such as For Sale or Under Construction, alternatively you can direct the domain to a different web address. Your second option is extremely helpful in case you own a number of domains, but you want every one of them to open the same website. For instance, you may register domain.net and domain.org, then park them and direct them to domain.com. In this example, you are going to need hosting for the third domain name only and the traffic to the other ones will be redirected to it.