The US Department of Justice has put forward proposals designed to break Google's monopoly over online searches. Included in the DOJ's proposals is the recommendation that Google sell off its Chrome web browser.

Other proposals include putting blocks in place that would stop the tech giant from entering into contracts with companies that result in Google being the default search engine on various platforms. Google has lashed out at the proposals saying that they go too far and would cause harm to customers and innovation.

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The latest DOJ filing comes after an anti-competition ruling back in August which found Google to have illegally stifled its competitors to push its own search tools. There have long been calls for Google to be broken up to help to create a more level playing field for competition, and this is something that the latest proposals far from rule out.

Google is, predictably, unimpressed.

In a vitriolic blog post, Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs at Google & Alphabet, writes:

DOJ had a chance to propose remedies related to the issue in this case: search distribution agreements with Apple, Mozilla, smartphone OEMs, and wireless carriers.

Instead, DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America's global technology leadership. DOJ's wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision. It would break a range of Google products -- even beyond Search -- that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.

Google believes that what it describes as "unprecedented government overreach" would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses. The company points to several outcomes the proposals would lead to:

This is far from being the end of the story, and Google is expected to respond with its own proposals and remedies in the coming weeks.