At the McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) conference three weeks ago, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said that so far he had only one brief chat over the phone with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz, whose company’s search business he covets. But Ballmer added that “I’m sure when it’s appropriate, we’ll have a chance to sit down and talk.” Apparently, the time has come. AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher reports this morning that the two CEOs had a face-to-face chat last week to talk about possible commercial relationships.

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Swisher cautions that the conversations between Bartz and Ballmer, as well as other executives at the two firms, are “preliminary and wide-ranging.” The fact that the two companies are talking isn’t so surprising. Ballmer said as much at the McGraw-Hill conference, when he noted, “People at our two companies talk all the time.” But the face-to-face meeting between the two CEOs seems to imply that Bartz could be giving a deal serious thought. While Ballmer has very vocally said he is interested in Yahoo’s search business, Bartz has been much less chatty on the merits of such a deal.